Destined
by Bard of Today
Summary: Three women from three worlds meet. Is it by chance or is there something more to it? Perfect Dark/Tomb Raider/Metroid crossover. Perfect Dark timeline is after the original game. Metroid is following "Other M". Tomb Raider timeline is unspecified.
1. Going Home

All characters copywrite their respective owners. This is a work of fanfiction and I claim no ownership of any of the following.

A crossover tale of Perfect Dark, Tomb Raider, and Metroid Fan Fiction

Part 1. Going Home

Agent Dark, Mission Log, Earth Time: Ten-twenty hours: Elvis has taken us and the Skedar ship we hijacked back to the Mayian home world. He says it must be dismantled so it's parts can be used to rebuild damaged sections of this planet. He has promised to take me back to earth as soon as the Mayian ship is "refueled". Personally, it makes me nervous being around so many aliens. But I suppose, on this planet, _I'm_ the alien.

"Joanna, are you awake?"

Joanna woke to Elvis calling her name.

"I am now." She said, sitting up and swinging her legs to the floor.

"The ship is ready to leave if you are." Elvis' voice rang in her head.

Standing up, Joanna stretched and walked to the door. Ready? After dealing with aliens who either tell bad jokes all day or try to rip you limb from limb, she was looking forward to getting back to some good, old-fashioned, political espionage.

As she pushed the panel, the door to the pressurized chamber opened with a hiss of air and Joanna saw Elvis standing there at the end of a long, hard-plastic tube. As the Mayians had no mouths or respiratory systems they had no need for air. Their atmosphere was practically non-existent, except for a gas Elvis called mikrium. Fortunately for Jo, the Mayians were able to build a stable "air tube" that she could walk to the space ship in.

"C'mon, Jo, the ship's waiting." Elvis said.

As they walked through the tube, Joanna noticed the thick mist that was constantly changing colors outside.

"Elvis," she said, "I've been meaning to ask you. What is that colored mist I keep seeing?"

"That is the mikrium." Elvis replied, "Our sun's solar energies make the colors shift. Oh, I would love to be able to see colors as you do. When you only see in black and white, every movie looks like a classic."

"How long will the trip to Earth take?" Joanna asked.

"We'll be there before you can say 'Elvis has left the building'." Elvis replied.

The trip to Earth was indeed a short one. The longest part being when they had to slow down to navigate through Joanna's solar system.

"Will you be staying on Earth when we arrive?" Joanna asked, attempting to pass the time.

"Perhaps I will." Elvis replied, tapping a few keys on the control panel in front of him to adjust their heading, "It's funny. Now that the war with the Skedar is over for good, I don't know what to do with myself…maybe I'll start doing game shows."

"You might want to steer clear of that for right now." Joanna suggested, imagining the chaos that would ensue if it suddenly became evident that "aliens were among us", "At any rate- Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Elvis asked.

"That beeping."

"I don't hear anything."

Joanna followed the sound until she came to the center of the bridge.

"It's coming from underneath this panel." She said.

Looking to see which panel Jo was looking at, Elvis then pressed a few buttons on the control panel in front of him and the metal panel in front of Jo disappeared. Beneath it, among a mesh of wires, sat a palm-sized black box. An L.E.D. screen sat on the top, red symbols shifting and changing in sync with the beeping.

"Elvis." Joanna called, rather nervously.

The little alien quickly hopped down from his chair, puttered over to Joanna and looked down at the open panel.

"Please tell me that isn't what I think it is." Joanna said.

"Oh, no." Elvis exclaimed, "A Skedar bomb. How did that get in there?"

"That's what I was afraid of." Joanna mentioned, "How much time do we have?

"According to this screen, we have less than forty seconds before-"

"Spare me the joke and point me to the air lock." Joanna said, picking up the device.

She was surprised by the fact that it merely consisted of the black box, the mesh of wires merely being part of the Mayian ship.

"I'll light the way by the corridor lights." Elvis said, racing back to his chair.

Waisting no time, Joanna ran to the exit doors and quickly made her way down the lighted corridors. Reaching the airlock after about ten seconds, thanks to some misdirection from Elvis, Joanna shouted, "Elvis, open the air lock!"

"The controls aren't responding, Joanna." The little alien's voice sounded in her head, "You'll have to open the doors manually. There should be a lever on the wall."

Seeing the large switch, Joanna grabbed it and flipped it down. The heavy inner doors to the airlock quickly opened. Inside the airlock, an electronic control pad sat on the wall. Joanna ran over to it and tried desperately to activate it. Finding it unresponsive, she quickly placed the device on the floor, grabbed hold of the lever she had just pulled, pulled out the Phoenix gun Elvis had given her, and shot the control panel. Instantly, the doors opened and a vacuum rushed into the ship. The device was quickly sucked out along with Joanna's Phoenix as the determined young woman held onto the switch with both hands.

"Stupid piece of alien junk!" Elvis said slamming his hands down on the control panel.

The outer doors to the airlock quickly closed and Joanna suddenly found herself able to breath. Only moments later, the ship violently jerked forward, slamming Joanna's head against the wall, nearly knocking her unconscious. She could barely comprehend Elvis' words as his voice once again rang inside her jarred mind.

"You'd better grab onto something, Joanna." he said, "The shockwave from that explosion knocked us into the Earth's atmosphere. We're coming in too hot and I can't control her. I'll see if I can manage an emergency landing over-"

Before the loyal gray alien could finish, Joanna's mind gave up and she passed out.


	2. Meeting

II. Meeting

Joanna awoke, blurry eyed, to a light being shined in her eyes and something gently slapping her cheek.

"Hey, you awake now?" an unfamiliar voice asked her aloud.

The voice was feminine with a British accent. Joanna reached up and shielded her eyes from the light.

"Is that you, Velvet?" Joanna asked, hoping it was her sister.

"'Fraid not, Miss." The voice replied as the light was shined upwards, revealing the face of a beautiful young woman, "Name's Croft, Lara. Designation: Human. And you are?"

"Dark, Joanna. Designation: tremendous amounts of pain." Joanna replied as she put her hand on her head and sat up.

The young lady that had identified herself as Lara shined her light on Joanna's side as the injured agent slowly and painfully began to pull herself to her feet.

"Careful now." Lara cautioned as she helped the young agent up, "Try not to move too much. You've taken a rather nasty wound to your right side."

Looking down to where Lara was directing her light, Joanna noticed a large portion of her waist had been bandaged. The cloth was stained a dark crimson where Lara was directing the beam.

"You were bleeding pretty badly when I found you. I patched you up as best I could, but I've never bandaged an alien before, so I don't know if there was anything further you'd need."

Joanna looked over at the young woman.

"Are you mad?" she said, "Do I look like an alien to you?"

"Well you _are_ in an alien spacecraft." Lara came back, "Or is this just some new shuttle the Americans have cooked up?"

"No, it's an alien spacecraft alright-" Joanna stopped as a thought hit her, "Oh, no. Elvis."

"The rock singer?" Lara inquired as Joanna moved away and began to stumble down the corridor.

The young treasure hunter quickly followed.

"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but Elvis died." she said, "He wasn't kidnapped by aliens. Or was he?"

"No, Elvis is the nickname of the pilot of this ship." Joanna responded, "Before I passed out he was trying to guide the ship down safely to…"

Joanna stopped and looked back at Lara.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"The Brazilian rain forest." Lara replied, "I was repelling down a cliff when your spaceship came down a good distance away in a blazing fireball. Quite a brilliant display, actually. Probably could have seen it for miles."

"Well, I suppose it's better than landing in the middle of London Square." Joanna commented as she continued along, "Is anyone else with you?"

"'Fraid not, Miss Dark." Lara replied, "It's just you and me and maybe your friend if we can find him. Do you actually know where you're going?"

"Now why does that sound familiar? Here it is."

Finding the lever on the wall, Joanna pulled on it hard, but to no avail. It would not budge. The pain form her injury forcing her to stop, she drew back and held her injured side.

"Let me give it a try." Lara said, handing the flashlight to Joanna.

Gripping it with both hands, Lara slowly pulled the lever down. The large doors opened part of the way.

"You're pretty strong." Joanna commented.

"Well, you have to be strong in my line of work." Lara replied, "Here, let me look at that."

Joanna shined the light on her side while Lara checked for more bleeding.

The pain was subsiding, but Joanna was starting to feel a little light-headed. She'd taken enough first aid to know passing out could deadly.

"What do you do?" Joanna inquired trying to keep her mind occupied.

"Looks like you started bleeding a little more, but not much." Lara said, her attention too focused on Jo's condition, "Should seal up just fine on its own, but I'll need to get you outside where I can take a better look at it."

Joanna shook her head. "No, we have to find Elvis first, make sure he's alright."

"Alright." Lara agreed, "But you hold on to the torch. You don't need to be running into anything or doing something else to aggravate that wound."

Joanna nodded and moved to the door. Squeezing through, the two women looked around the dark remains of the bridge. All was silent.

"Elvis?" Joanna called, panning the room with the flashlight, "Elvis, are you here?"

Lara looked around, attempting to adjust her eyes to the dark. The light of the flashlight being too close, she instructed Jo to try searching over to the right, while she searched over to the left.

"Elvis?" Joanna called again, still sweeping with the flashlight, "C'mon you little bugger, answer me."

Lara looked around as she moved, her eyes were adjusting but not by much. She could hear the irritation in Joanna's voice and recognized it as one laced with fear. A thought coming to her mind of distracting Joanna's thoughts, Lara spoke.

"Sorry, you asked me what I do. I'm a treasure hunt-oof!" Lara said as she tripped over an object in the dark.

"You alright?" Joanna asked, shining the light over at Lara.

"Fine." Lara replied, "I think I found your friend."

Walking over to where Lara was sitting on the floor, Joanna shined the light on Elvis' silent body.

"Oh, no." she said, kneeling down and shaking Elvis' body slightly, "Elvis. Elvis, can you hear me?"

"Uh…Jo…an…na." Elvis' voice barely rang in her head, "Auto…pilot…green button…send me home."

"Don't worry, Elvis." Joanna reassured him, "You're going to be alright."

"What's going on?" Lara asked, not having heard what Elvis had said.

"Elvis is alive. Never thought I'd hear myself say that." Joanna replied as she made her way to the control panel, "I'm going to set the autopilot to take him back to his home planet. The Mayians will be able to take care of him…I hope."

Finding a large green button, Joanna pushed it and said, "There. That should do it. Let's get out of here."

"Hand me the torch." Lara said once they had reached the partially opened doors, "Follow me."

Joanna handed her the flashlight and quickly followed her through the maze of corridors as the two women felt the ship's engines begin to start. Finally coming to a large hole in the ceiling, Lara quickly jumped up, grabbed the ledge and pulled herself up. She then reached down and helped the injured Joanna out as the ship began to vibrate.

"What about this hole in the hull!?" Lara shouted above the noise.

"Mayians don't breath air!" Joanna replied, "He'll be fine! Let's get out of here!"

The two women quickly ran to the edge of the craft and jumped off into the underbrush. With the sound of crashing trees, the space craft skidded off into the sky.

"Well, this is a day I certainly won't soon forget." Lara said.

"Nor I." Joanna replied.


	3. Suspicions

III. Suspicions

Standing up, the two women looked each other over. Joanna was dressed in a form-fitting, dark-blue body suit, a section of which lay torn open from the crash, the bandages wrapped around her waist showing through. Shiny, metal gauntlets covered her forearms and a matching pair covered her calves, partially covered by the near knee-high, leather boots that rested on her feet. A shiny, metal belt was wrapped around her waist, a few small devices attached to its silvery surface. Her short, auburn hair flopped lazily on the sides of her head and a strange, metal, wire-like object wrapped around the left side of her face.

Lara was dressed in a tight, green tank-top and tight, brown shorts. Heavy hiking boots covered her feet and fingerless gloves covered her hands. A brown, leather back-pack was strapped to her back from the side of which hung a large machete. Her long, brown hair which was tied in a braid came down to her thighs and a pair of red sunglasses rested awkwardly on her nose, having falling from her forehead. The first things Joanna noticed, however, were the two guns holstered on the outside of her thighs.

"Well, Miss Dark, you certainly seem dressed for a mission through space." Lara said, revealing a brilliant, white smile as she pushed back her sunglasses.

"Joanna, please." Jo replied, a little suspicious, "What did you say you do again?"

"I'm a treasure hunter." Lara replied, "Relax, the guns are just there in case I run into any wild animals. What about your gun?"

"What makes you think I have a gun?" Joanna asked.

"One: because I can see you're ready to draw it right now. And two: because I took the liberty of removing it from your person."

"Why would you go and do that?"

"I didn't know if you were hostile."

"Well, now that you've seen I'm not, may I have it back please?"

Joanna extended an open palm towards Lara.

"Sure." Lara replied, taking off her backpack and retrieving Joanna's gun for her, "Nice piece, really. Don't think I've seen a model quite like it."

Taking the gun, Joanna holstered it and asked, "Aren't you afraid I might turn on you?"

"I think if you were going to, you'd have done it by now." Lara replied, "Besides, you wouldn't last a day out here without me, especially in that outfit."

Seeing the large sweat marks on Lara's outfit, Joanna suddenly became aware of the intense heat and humidity that was surrounding them.

"Yes, I suppose you're right." Joanna commented, wiping the sweat from her brow.

Reaching to her belt, Joanna pressed a button, allowing a small screen to flip open. Joanna then pressed a few buttons on the small display and the little device closed back up. Lara watched with amazement as Joanna's outfit began to change. Its sleeves and midsection retracted into the upper-torso of the outfit, the collar widening and lowering as the legs shortened to her hips. Joanna stood there a moment, looking over her new outfit. Her top had become a belly-length tank top and her pants were now comparable in length to Lara's.

"Well that's convenient." Lara commented.

Joanna glanced an amused smile at her.

"It's a prototype." she said as she continued to look herself over, "Wasn't sure if it would actually work. I suppose it is a bit skimpy, but at least I won't die of heat exhaustion."

"Well, that's for sure." Lara again commented.

Pushing a tiny button on her earpiece, Joanna watched as a small TelePrompTer appeared in front of her left eye.

"Agent Dark reporting in, do you read me?" Joanna said aloud.

The screen in front of her merely displayed snowy static. Lara looked at her, wondering what exactly she was doing.

"This is Special Agent Joanna Dark, Code name: Perfect Dark." Joanna continued, "Does anyone read this transmission?"

Again she was greeted with a screen of static. Pushing the button again, allowing the TelePrompTer to move away, she grumbled, "Useless."

"Mind telling me what that is?" Lara inquired.

"It's a new style of communicator developed by the Carrington Institute." Joanna replied, "It also displays the time and date. It's supposed to be linked up to a satellite. But, for some reason, I can't get a signal."

"May I see it?" Lara asked, her hand extended.

"Certainly." Joanna replied, removing the earpiece and handing it to Lara.

The young woman fit the piece over her ear and pushed the small button.

"Incredible." Lara commented as the TelePrompTer appeared in front of her eye, "Well, wait a minute. It seems as if your time and date are a bit off."

"Let me see that." Joanna said.

Lara handed the device back to Joanna who also checked the date and time.

"No, it's alright." Joanna said, "Twelve P.M., April third, two-thousand, twenty-three."

"Right, it's off." Lara insisted, "By about twenty-five years."

"What are you talking about?" Joanna asked, a bit confused as she once again deactivated the TelePrompTer.

"Oh, don't tell me you're from the future too." Lara said.

"The future?" Joanna said, still confused.

"Oh, dear." Lara said as she walked over to Joanna and guided her to sit down on a large rock, "Now I realize this may be a bit of a shock for you, but the year is nineteen, ninety-eight."

"What?" Joanna said with a half-chuckle, not wanting to believe it, "That's ridiculous. How could I have traveled backwards in time? Time travel isn't possible."

"Maybe not for Humans." Lara replied, "But you were on an alien spacecraft. Now, do you know anything about how that ship operates?"

"No. All I know is it took us about twenty minutes to get from the Mayain home world to our solar system."

"What happened to make you crash?"

"A Skedar bomb went off outside the ship."

"Alright, well, what if an explosion was just the sort of catalyst to offset the ship's inertial dampers long enough for it to travel back in time twenty-five years."

"But that's ridiculous."

"Think about it. It explains why you can't get through to whomever you were trying to contact. It also explains your gun, your communicator, even those devices on your belt."

Joanna sat there a moment, her mind trying to comprehend what was going on. Time travel? It was almost ludicrous. But what other explanation was there, unless... Joanna suddenly looked back up at Lara, a hardened look on her face.

"No." she said, getting up from the rock and backing away, "This is some sort of trick. I'm in some sort of hologram room aren't I?"

"I'm telling you the truth, Joanna." Lara insisted, "The year is nineteen, ninety-eight and you're standing in the middle of the Brazilian rainforest. I thought that would be plainly evident to you by now-"

Lara watched as Joanna went for her gun. Lara instinctively responded by drawing both of hers. The two women stood there, pointing their guns at each other.

"Come now, Joanna. You don't want to do that." Lara calmly stated, "Think about what you're doing."

Lara could feel the sweat on her face. She could feel it coating her hands, making the grip she held on her weapons looser than she would like. She had an urge to move her fingers and somewhat re-adjust her grip, but she knew that one false move and this could easily turn into a blood bath for both of them.

"Come on, Jo, think about it." Lara said, "What would I have to gain from deceiving you? I'm just a treasure hunter."

"If you're just a treasure hunter, how could you have known about the inertial dampers?" Joanna suspiciously asked.

"What's the matter? Don't you people have Star Trek in the future?" Lara inquired, "Put the gun down. I'm telling you the truth, now put the gun down."

"We'll see about that." Joanna said as she reached up and tapped a button on her earpiece.

What looked to Lara like a pair of red-lensed safety glasses quickly formed in front of Joanna's eyes. Joanna looked through the lenses of her I. R. Scanner, half-expecting a Skedar to be standing next to Lara. But as she looked around, all she saw was Lara and the thick rain forest that surrounded them on all sides. She hit the button again and the red lenses quickly exchanged for orange ones. Joanna stared at Lara and saw that she was indeed human, her human skeleton showing a number of healed fractures. Once again, Joanna looked around but saw nothing but an empty forest. Finally, she looked back at Lara and lowered her gun. Letting out the breath she had been holding, Lara lowered her guns and holstered them.

"But this is impossible." Joanna said, plopping down in the charred grass as she deactivated her lenses.

"An hour ago I would have agreed with you." Lara said, "But it seems we've both been proven wrong."

"What am I supposed to do now?" Joanna said in a frustrated tone, "Just start a whole new life in the twentieth century?"

"Look, why don't you just come with me for now. I was in the middle of a treasure hunt when you and your spaceship showed up. My team will be back in seven days to pick me up. Until then, it's just you, me, and the jungle. What do you say?"

Lara extended an open palm towards her.

"Well, at least I won't have to deal with any more aliens." Joanna finally agreed, taking Lara's hand.

"That's the spirit." Lara said with a smile as she helped Joanna to her feet.

Joanna suddenly swayed at the quick action. She had still not fully regained her strength. And with the heat of the forest and the stress of the moment only seemed to make things worse.

"Oh." Lara said, "That, unfortunately, is not."

Lara examined Jo's side.

"Well, not bleeding anymore." She said after a moment, "But this wound still needs to be cleaned and re-dressed. There's a river about a mile from here. Think you can make it?"

"Yes, I…I think so." Joanna replied, rather unsteadily.

Lara watched her a moment. She doubted Jo's ability, but nonetheless agreed. It wasn't like they had much choice.

"Alright. Let's go." She said.

Lara then unstrapped her machete and proceeded to cut a path through the dense jungle. Joanna promptly holstered her gun and followed.


	4. Recollections

IV. Recollections

"You mind if I ask you a few questions?" Joanna asked, wanting to take her mind off her condition.

"By all means." Lara replied.

"How long have you been doing this?" Jo asked.

"Oh, for quite a few years now." Lara answered.

"You do it often?"

"As often as I can. I only do it when it involves rare or legendary artifacts. Ones that would generally be worth a lot of money."

"Is that why you do this? The money?"

"No, no, no. Don't be silly. I do it because it's an adventure. I do it because no one ever has. The millions of dollars I get are just an added bonus."

"Some bonus."

"Course, sometimes," Lara added as she wrestled with a rather stubborn vine, "I do it to keep whatever I'm after out of the hands of some rather unsavory characters."

Finally gaining victory, Lara turned back to Jo.

"You know the type." she said, "Want to rule the world, make millions of dollars, all that sort of nonsense."

Lara turned and continued hacking without waiting for a response.

"If only you knew." Joanna replied, "So, what are we hunting today?"

"The legendary emerald of Kammakutan. Supposedly it has mystic powers and was hidden somewhere in this jungle."

"Somewhere? You mean you don't know where?"

"Not in particular. But previous explorers of this region uncovered massive underground caverns with several entrances ranging in size from twenty feet, to the size of an American penny."

"So, you're just hoping we happen upon one of these entrances."

"I don't need to hope. Remember I told you I was repelling down a cliff when I saw your ship come down?"

"Yes."

"Well, I had just spotted one of the entrances and was on my way to it-"

"When my ship came down and you had to detour to rescue me." Joanna said with disappointment.

"Oh don't feel so bad. We all get into trouble now and again. I've had quite a few scrapes myself."

After a moment of silence, Lara turned and asked, "So what is it you do-"

She stopped seeing Joanna laying face down on the ground.

"Oh drat." She said rushing over to her.

She quickly rolled Joanna over and tried to wake her.

"Jo." She said, slapping her cheek, "Come on, Jo, wake up. Come on, I need you to stay awake."

Joanna moved her head and mumbled something incoherent.

"All right then, just hold on." Lara said, sitting Joanna up and then gently laying her over her shoulder, "I'll get you there. Just don't die on me. I'm afraid that wouldn't do at all."

Standing up, Lara, as quickly as she could, made her way through the jungle with the unconscious agent slung over her shoulder.

Lara was nearly out of breath by the time they reached the river. Rigorous workouts were nothing new to her, but running a mile carrying an additional one-hundred, fifteen pounds had not been a regular practice of hers. Carefully laying Joanna down on the riverbank, Lara again tried to wake her, again receiving the same results. Quickly taking off her pack, Lara cut open Joanna's bandages and peeled them away. She then used the water from the river to wash away the dried blood. Joanna shivered as she was washed in the cold water. It was enough to wake her, at least partially and she lay with eyes wide, breathing fast and staring up at the blue sky.

"Don't worry, Jo." Lara reassured her, seeing the lack of seriousness of the wound, "You may have lost a lot of blood, but the bleeding has stopped and the wound itself isn't all that bad."

"You don't…you don't have to reassure-" Joanna began, still breathing quickly.

"Slooooow…breaths." Lara said slowly, looking Joanna in the face, "Slow down your breathing or you'll hyperventilate."

As Joanna stared at the treasure hunter, she slowed her breathing.

"Good." Lara said, "Now don't worry about your wound. I wasn't lying. You'll be fine. However, this is going to hurt."

Lara took out a sterilizing salt packet and tore it open. As she poured the salt into the wound, Joanna cringed and gripped the soft mud beneath her. Lara then proceeded to re-wrap the wound with a fresh strand of bandadge.

"There we are," she said, tying a knot, "all done."

Joanna Found herself wandering the empty halls of a skedar ship. Her phoenix gun in hand, she turned this way and that as she moved swiftly down the corridors, watching for the enemy whom she was sure to be just around the next bend of the triangular hallway. The ship was oddly empty, and eerily quiet. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear the sound of water trickling as well as what sounded like the sound of a fire snapping and crackling. She could feel heat. There was a presence. Something was approaching. She spun around, searching for her enemy and saw mangled jaws lunging at her. Outwardly calm, inwardly screaming, she fired.

She woke with a start, snatching up her weapon and pointing it up at the young woman that stood staring down at her.

"Didn't we already go through this?" a familiar voice asked her.

Joanna blinked, her quickly clearing eyesight revealing the treasure hunter that had now twice saved her life.

"Sorry." She said, lowering her gun. "Been long about it, you know?"

As she holstered her weapon, Joanna looked around. It was night. She found herself leaning against a tree, a campfire crackling in front of her, and what must have been a stream offshoot of the river just beyond. A spit hung over the fire, cooking well the small fish that were skewered on it.

"How long was I out?" Joanna asked as she pushed herself up to sit better.

"Ten hours." Lara replied, squatting down, "It's midnight. I thought I might lose you for a time. Here."

Lara handed Jo a spit of freshly cooked fish. Upon seeing it, the young agent realized just how hungry she was and took it with thanks.

"Sorry to have worried you." She said between bites. "That's twice now you've saved my life. You keep this up and I may wind up being your slave."

Lara didn't answer the joke. She was busy observing carefully their surroundings, never moving from her squatting position.

"Is something wrong?" Jo asked her, halting her inhaling of the fish.

"Maybe." Lara replied, still looking around.

"Hey!"

Lara at last looked at her.

"I may not be as experienced as you at this sort of living, but I'm not daft." Jo told her. "I've had quite a bit of experience with close quarters combat and have come close to losing my life several times. I don't carry this gun for style. If something's wrong, I'd like to know what we're up against."

Lara regarded her for a long moment.

"What is it you do Joanna?" she finally asked her.

Joanna stared thoughtfully at the young treasure hunter. Thoughts of the space-time continuum and the consequences of tampering with the past ran through her mind. If she told her, would she create an alternate timeline? Would she erase her own future? Would it affect her at all or would the universe implode if she spoke one more word? She thought about it so much, her head began to hurt. Then again, maybe it was just the fish. The blasted things weren't the best tasting thing she had eaten.

Joanna sighed. She had better stick to what she knew. And all she knew was that the universe hadn't imploded yet.

"I guess there's no harm in telling you." She said, resuming her meal. "I'm a special agent working for an independent agency known as the Carrington Institute. I specialize in espionage; you know, break in quietly, recover the microfilm, that sort of thing. Course, my body count is often a lot higher than my boss would like. In my time the world is ruled by malevolent megacorporations mostly dealing in pharmaceuticals on the surface and grasping for world domination underneath. I deal with these megacorps' security forces which usually amount to a small army on a regular basis. They aren't expert combatants, but they're tough and numerous enough to give me a pretty hard time so I'm no stranger to dangerous situations."

"And the spaceship?"

Joanna shook her head as she took another bite.

"I was as surprised as you were." She replied. "Datadyne, one of the megacorps I was assigned to infiltrate on several occasions, had been holding Elvis captive. I managed to get him out and found out a lot more about Datadyne. Mainly that they had apparently allied themselves with an alien race called the skedar. They're not nearly as cute and annoying as Elvis. Think the Alien movies only with intelligence and advanced weaponry. They and Elvis' people, the mayians, were in the middle of an interstellar war. That was no fun to get involved in. Put all that together and you get an idea of what I've had to deal with up until yesterday. So you can see I have no patience to be left in the dark as it were."

Lara nodded, taking in all that Joanna had told her.

"Your turn." Jo said, taking another bite.

"I found a set of fresh tracks half a kilometer away heading in the direction of the entrance I told you about. They were human and they were booted. Do you know what that means?"

"Well, based on your behavior, I'd say it means that those unsavory characters you told me about before are somewhere nearby and probably headed for the emerald you're hunting."

"Right." Lara replied as she continued to look around.

"So what's the plan?" Joanna asked, tossing the empty spit away and dusting her hands.

"Nothing right now." Lara replied, "You're too injured to go anywhere and I can't leave you here to fend for yourself. So unless you've got a miracle pill in that belt of yours, all we can do is stay put."

"Well don't count me out yet."

Lara looked to her in disbelief.

"Oh don't tell me you have a miracle pill."

Joanna laughed as she began to pull herself to her feet, Lara on edge as she moved to a standing position.

"Not unless you consider penicillin a miracle pill." Joanna said as she stretched her legs out. "I'm feeling much better now that I've eaten and that blasted sun is off my head. Remember, I've been trained at stealth and espionage. I know how to move without causing a lot of stress to my body. So long as I don't aggravate my wound, which I assume you are at the very least competent in stitching, I should be fine. Besides, I've seen plenty of times myself what happens when evil men get a hold of something powerful. If this emerald is as you say, we can't afford to waste any time."

Lara stared at her, arms crossed as Joanna pulled out her gun, checked the clip and pulled back on the slide, chambering the breach.

"Lara." Joanna said, looking back at Ms. Croft, "I've risked my life several times to keep what's important out of the hands of those who would use it for their own gain. This is no different. The world doesn't stop and start by our timetable and these men won't wait for me to heal."

Lara stared at her a moment more, weighing heavily what Joanna had said.

"Alright. But if your condition worsens-"

"Then you'll leave me behind and I'll wait for you to return. Understood. Lead the way."

"First let's put out this fire. No need to burn down the entire forest."


	5. Trouble

V. Trouble

The two women moved through the forest at a quickened pace. Lara purposely moved slower, allowing Joanna to keep pace. However, it brought a few objections from the stubborn agent which were promptly ignored. Not being as experience at running through the jungle at night as Lara, Joanna might have needed her to go slower, were it not for the nightvision lenses she had activated before they left. She watched the ease with which Lara moved through the thick jungle and found herself amazed at how adept she was. On her best day she couldn't move like that.

Lara suddenly stopped and stooped down, prompting Joanna to copy her. Jo scooted up next to her and Lara showed her the two figures standing mere feet from their position. They stood in close proximity, one lighting a cigarette, the other already smoking. Close-quarter automatics hung from straps at their sides. Lara signaled to Jo to stay put and then moved away before she could object.

The two men stood smoking and chatting, not in the least bit aware of their surroundings. They stood guarding what looked like a gaping hole in the ground. A rustling off to their left grabbed their attention, causing them to reach for their weapons. In a flash, Lara was at their opposite, guns drawn and aimed squarely at their chests.

"That's well enough, boys," she told them, cocking the hammers on her pistols. "Now set the guns on the ground, if you would."

The two slowly set their guns on the ground and stood facing the young treasure hunter. She motioned them away from the hole and they complied. Once they were against a tree, Lara inquired, "Who are you working for?"

A sound behind her caused her to whip a gun around, pointing it at a third man she had known to be somewhere nearby. The barrel of her gun wasn't but an inch from his head, the barrel of his not a foot from her waist.

"Thinking about wasting me?" she questioned him. "Your bullets might kill me if I'm not quick enough, but mine will most certainly end your life. Now why don't you be good chap and move over their with your friends."

As Lara spoke, the others silently pulled gloks from behind them and carefully pulled back on the slides. A choking sound from the one further back prompted the other to turn to face him, gun raised. Lara watched as her assailant's eyes looked away from her and she seized the opportunity. More swiftly than he could react, she turned and brought her leg up, her foot making contact in his most vulnerable spot. The man crumpled instantly and Lara redirected her aim back toward the two men. The first was down and the second had his arm at an awkward angle behind his back. He convulsed, choked, and then collapsed as Joanna de-cloaked behind him.

Lara lowered her guns.

"Are you mad?" she berated the young agent. "Going into combat with a wound like that?"

The man behind her managed a groan.

"Oh, so sorry I messed up your plans of getting killed." Joanna shot back as she picked up the unconscious guards' guns. "Would you like me to come back later when you're full of holes so I can patch you up and save your life?"

"Thank you." Lara replied. "But you could have just disarmed them. I had this one taken care of. And you should know as well as I do what that could have done to that hole in your side."

The man coughed.

"Alright, alright." Joanna conceded. "Point taken. He's getting up."

Lara turn and noticed the man trying to grab his gun. Lara stepped on it, halting his efforts. She then pointed her gun at his reddened face.

"Who are you working for?"

"I hate goons who don't talk." Lara spouted as they turned a dark corner. The two had used ropes that had been left to repel down five-hundred feet into a cool, dark cavern. Lara had been about to pull out her flashlight when Joanna had given her the nightvision goggles to use. The two then proceeded down an opening and quickly found themselves in a maze of corridors.

"Might have something to do with how you immobilized him." Joanna replied. "Those are some pretty large boots."

Lara stopped and stooped down.

"What is it?" Joanna asked.

"Tracks." Lara responded and then looked a little further. "And a body."

She then examined the walls closely.

"Looks like whatever trap was here has already been triggered. Hello. What's this?"

Lara moved to a particular spot on the wall and viewed the markings of an ancient civilization long since disappeared. She was silent for long moments, at last prompting Jo to speak.

"Did you find something?"

"Not sure." Lara replied. "These engravings mention a lady in ice that lives within the emerald. It says 'when the doors are opened, the emerald's treasurer will be revealed; a treasure of much gold that cannot be taken. When a person stands upon the gold in a certain place, the blue lady in ice will grant him entrance to see her. But only those worthy may enter. When the speaker to the spirits-' that's probably their shaman '-uses the key, the doors will open, but the path will be shut. One who is chosen to see the lady must accept his fate to be with her forever.' And it says her spirit speaks to those who enter in the language of the spirits."

"Well that's encouraging." Joanna spouted.

Lara tapped her finger on her lip, thinking. "Something strange about the grammar."

"Let's not worry about it for now." Joanna suggested. "I'm sure this one chap isn't all there is to whomever is after this emerald, or whatever it is that is down here. We'd better get moving."

"Right." Lara complied and then turned and continued down the corridor with Joanna close behind.

The voices started not long after that. They rose steadily as the two women approached a particular corner. Much flickering light could be seen and Lara handed the lenses back to Joanna. She then peaked her head around the corner. A large chamber lay well lit by many torches. On the far wall, taking up nearly the entire expanse was what appeared to be in the flickering light, a large, cut emerald at least five feet in length and three feet in height. The rest of the wall was filled with inscriptions. Lara knew as soon as she saw it that the emerald wasn't an emerald at all. But before she even saw that, her eagle eyes noticed the small artifact held in the free hand of an elderly man dressed in a cream suit and holding a cane in his right hand. She quickly retreated back around the corner and hugged the wall.

"Recognize them?" Joanna whispered, knowing because of the levels of the voices, she wouldn't be heard.

Lara nodded as she quietly checked her clip.

"Von Croy." She whispered back as Jo moved to take a look. "My old teacher. He's the one with the cane. Looks like he's teamed up with Pierre DuPont, one of my rivals. That's the one reading the inscriptions right now. He's NOT interested in adventure. Von Croy has the key. There's a slot on the far left wall. My guess is that Pierre is checking the inscriptions to make sure there aren't any more warnings or traps. Jo."

Joanna came back to her side.

"These are dangerous men who won't hesitate to kill you."

Joanna nodded.

"Right. What's the plan?"

"Bah!" Pierre grumbled. "It's all just legend around the lady in ice. Bunch of nonsense. Nothing to be worried about."

"Just the same," said the man in the suit. "Everyone stand back and be ready for anything."

The six armed men stood back as Von Croy moved to the wall and inserted the key into the slot. A grinding sound filled the chamber as the wall in front of them split and slowly slid away into the side walls. The torchlight flickered and stale air rushed out at them as the glittering gold to which the emerald was attached was revealed. The grinding ceased and the group looked upon the structure in awe.

At last, Von Croy spoke.

"This is not gold." He said. "It's-"

His words halted as a torch suddenly went out. The group turned just in time to see another become extinguished. Then, turning frantic, cocked their weapons, watching in terror as the torches, one by one, were extinguished.

"It's a ghost!" one of them said and began to turn tail and run.

"Stop it, you fools!" Von Croy said, stepping forward. "Just shoot whenever you see a torch go out!"

A shout from behind them grabbed their attention.

"Lara Cro-"

"Bugger all." Lara said as the cowardly grunt fell at her feet. "Joanna! Get the key!"

She then rounded the corner, took aim and began firing, leaping, tumbling and rolling, keeping the men confused and unable to get a solid beat on her in the now limited torchlight.

Von Croy quickly scrambled to get the key out of the wall. He felt something metallic impact his hand and a force push him forward onto the ground as Lara ran past him. He looked back to see a young woman dressed in blue suddenly appear, holding the key. Lara jumped up to the top of the strange structure and Jo tossed her the key as the walls began to close. Pierre raised his guns toward Lara in a deadly aim.

"Oh no you don't-".

His words halted as his weapons were expertly shot out of his hands by Joanna.

"Jo!"

Jo turned to see the walls almost closed. As fast as she could she scrambled up the front of the structure. The walls were closing fast. She felt a pain in her side, slowing her down. She dropped her gun to get a better grip. Lara reached for her and grabbed her arm. The walls were closing. Her foot would be crushed. Lara pulled as hard as she could and pulled the young agent inside just as the walls slammed shut.

"Are you alright?" Lara asked her.

"None the worse for wear." Joanna said with a grunt as Lara helped her up the rest of the way. Lara felt the warm sensation of blood on Joanna's side.

"What did I tell you about combat and tearing open your wounds?"

"Point taken." Joanna replied painfully. "Do you have the key?"

"Yes. But don't count our friends out yet. I only got two of their men and if I know Von Croy and Pierre, they won't give up so easily. Why did you re-appear?"

"I'm afraid these cloaks only last so long. Don't ask me why. The skedar are the ones who invented them, not me."

Another grinding sounded, halting their conversation. The dark chamber was suddenly lit up by a shaft of light shining down directly behind Lara. She looked up and could see sunlight pouring in from a long shaft overhead.

"Looks like your teacher was right." Joanna said knocking on the metallic structure upon which they now sat. "This isn't gold."

"Not in the least." Lara said seeing the closed hatch that lay before her.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Don't ask me." Lara replied, standing up. "This is where my knowledge hits a wall, as it were."

Joanna slowly and painfully stood, holding her side.

"Looks like it's large enough for a large person standing straight. Looks like we could squeeze in one by one…if we can even figure out how to get inside."

Lara looked at it a moment and then kneeled. She pushed experimentally on the plate.

"Weight depression." She mumbled.

"What?"

"Weight depression. Many of these ancient cultures used weight sensitive tiles to trigger their traps. Not saying this is a trap, but I think this panel works on the same principal."

"Well how much weight do we need?"

"It's usually not much at all. But again, that's for a trap. And I don't think this is one."

Bravely, Lara stepped onto the panel. It didn't move, but she could feel the unsteadiness of it.

"Not enough, eh?" Joanna asked her.

"Come stand her with me." Lara said, giving Joanna as much room as she could.

Joanna looked hesitantly at her.

"What about all that about being trapped here forever."

"Don't believe everything you read."

Joanna still hesitated.

"Are you sure about this?"

Lara smiled. "Not in the least."

Joanna made a face, but nonetheless trusted the young treasure hunter and gingerly stepped onto the plate. Immediately, a clicking and whirring was heard as two objects appeared on either side of the panel, and split in two. The panel then moved with the smoothness of an escalator, lowering down into the depths of the structure. The two women held their breaths, hoping that Lara was right and that they hadn't just sealed their fate to being entombed until they died.


	6. The Lady in Ice

VI. The Lady in Ice

The two looked around. Their surroundings were as dark as the chamber from which they had come. The air was stale, metallic, and cold. There was no sound but that of the women's breathing. Even the noise in the chamber beyond was deafened. They could see the emerald and through it to the chamber just beyond where Von Croy and his men had re-lit the torches and were recovering. Von Croy stared angrily into the emerald, or rather…

"Glass." Lara spoke. "That's what I thought it was."

"A windshield." Joanna concurred.

She then activated her lenses and looked around. The green light filtering in from the chamber beyond revealed a steel chamber with numerous doors and slots that sat flush with the wall. Beneath the windshield sat a console, an empty pilot's chair facing them in what was for Joanna a very unwanted invitation.

"Well that confirms it." She said, dejectedly. "We're on a space ship. Wonderful."

"Oh don't be so down in the mouth." Lara told her. "You're alive at least."

"I'm not so sure that's a good thing at this point." Joanna satirically commented.

A light appearing in their peripheral turned their attention to a strange sight at the back of the chamber. The two stepped off the platform which raised up after they had stepped off, sealing them inside. Slowly, they approached, awed and uncertain at the sight before their eyes. Lara, her guns already drawn and held pensively at her sides, noted the skeleton lying curled up on the floor and then looked to the chamber before them. Jaded, blue light shined upon them from a chamber of blue ice sealed behind glass. Floating, suspended in the midst of the ice, the two women could make out the tall figure of a woman in a blue jumpsuit. Her dark hair looked as if frozen in mid-motion of being tossed amidst tiny underwater currents. Two tubes ran from either side of the chamber, connecting to a mask that covered her mouth. She looked as if she slept, a human woman perfectly preserved in a chamber of blue ice.

"The lady of ice." Lara muttered. "Of course. It was a blue ice, not blue lady. One of the natives must have gained entrance and been trapped in here. He must have communicated through the windshield somehow of what he saw."

"Lara, look!" Joanna said, leaning close to the glass and pointing. "There. Look at her chest."

Lara looked and viewed through the ice the tremendous wound on the woman's chest. It was definitely fatal and quickly Lara's tomb raider mind was forming conclusions and hypotheses, fitting together all that they had seen.

"Greetings."

Lara whirled, her guns aimed expertly at her target. The two viewed in the center of the chamber a small image standing upon a metallic cylinder. Its form flickered and cycled.

"It's a hologram." Joanna said. "And she's speaking English."

Lara breathed a sigh of relief as she lowered her guns.

"Well, now we know what the rest of the writings were talking about." She said.

The voice continued as the women drew closer. They saw that it was an exact copy of the lady in ice, save that she was only four inches tall and no wound lay on her chest.

"My name is Samus Aran. If you are viewing this, then something has happened. Likely I have received some type of wound and my ship was damaged beyond the point where it could sustain the resuscitation chamber. If such a thing has happened and my ship is not close enough to a medical facility, it is programmed to cryogenically freeze me, putting me into a state of suspended animation so that my life will be sustained. My ship is supposed to be self-repairing. However, if it was damaged beyond such ability, it will have shut down, reserving what power it has to operate the hatch, light the resuscitation chamber, and enable this holographic recording. I am not accustomed to asking for help. But it seems I am in need of it. I ask you, whomever you are, if you can understand this recording, to help me. This recording contains detailed instructions on how to repair this ship enough to allow it to re-awaken and begin proper repairs to itself. I ask you to rest on whatever compassion you have and help me."

Author's note: I'm aware that in some of the Metroid games Samus' hair appears blonde. However, the first one I played was Super Metroid for the SNES, in which her hair was a dark blue or black. As this is my memory of her character this is how I wrote her description.


	7. Clues

VII. Clues

"I don't like it."

Lara turned from viewing the ice chamber and looked to where Joanna lay sprawled on the floor. She lay working on the underside of an open panel near the captain's chair. The blue light of the hologram and the flickering light from the chamber beyond cast her and the cluttering of strange tools she had pulled from her belt in a strange array of criss-crossing shadows. She had been at it for hours and was not looking too well. It might have just been the lighting, but Lara wasn't betting on it. She had patched her up again, but she needed real food and water, not to mention better medical care than Lara could provide.

"What's that?" Lara asked her.

"I said I don't like it." Joanna replied. "We don't know a thing about this woman or this ship. If we resuscitate her, who's to say she won't turn on us?"

Joanna looked around at the mesh of wires, circuit boards, and alien connectors she had been working with. Her lenses revealed everything before her in crystal clarity and perfectly balanced light. She just didn't know what she was looking at. She twisted two exposed wires together, hoping she wasn't misunderstanding the recording.

"Next step." She said.

The recording dolled out more instructions and Joanna listened and looked, trying to comprehend what an electrostatic field induction unit was.

"Quite a statement for someone doing most of the work to resuscitate her." Lara commented as she looked casually at the chamber beyond the windshield.

Von Croy and his men were hard at work, bringing in heavy mining and digging tools, setting up a generator and air compressor, and preparing what looked like dynamite. Lara shook her head. Fools.

"Well," Joanna said, yanking a wire from its housing. "you bothered to take the time to save my life. The least I can do is return the favor. Or forward it or whatever you'd like to call it. But you were easily able to disarm me. This 'woman' is a different story. Who knows what sort of weaponry or devices this ship may contain."

Joanna grabbed one of her tools and brief red light appeared underneath the console.

"Speaking of which, don't you find this whole affair rather odd?" Lara asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well here we are on a space ship apparently operated by a human -or at least someone that speaks Earth English- that possesses technologies way beyond anything you or I have ever even heard of. We needed my expertise to find it. And we needed you to get to it and repair it. We don't know exactly what it was that caused you to travel backwards in time and we haven't a clue as to how this woman and her ship got here. I've seen a lot of strange things in my life, Jo, and I just can't help but wondering that there's something more to this than what we're seeing."

Joanna let out a breath.

"Perhaps." she said. "I just don't like it."

Lara breathed out a heavy breath and turned back to the ice chamber

"Neither do I." She said.

Joanna plugged in a newly-made socket to its counterpart. The chamber was suddenly filled with brilliant light. Joanna yelled and ripped her lenses from her eyes. Lara went to help her as she scooted out from under the console. The two looked around, Joanna managing as best she could. Blind or not, she wasn't about to be caught off guard. They could now see the chamber in which they stood had been blackened with soot. Debris and what might have been body parts littered the area. What looked like the source of the explosion sat just beyond the hatch platform area. A sense of dread but also of understanding came to the two women as they observed the barely distinguishable, large, dark streak running from just in front of the main console, across the soot, to the base of the resuscitation chamber.

"I am really not liking this." Joanna commented.

A slight humming sounded and a male voice filled the chamber. Joanna rubbed the blur from her eyes as she deactivated her lenses and replaced the earpiece. The voice said things not comprehended by the two for the most part. They discerned "diagnostic" and "damage" and "repair". Then the voice began to speak more plainly.

"Status: Samus Aran." It said. "Mortal wound. Resuscitation chamber re-initialized. Restoring heat."

The two watched as the chamber began to glow with a red light and the ice began to melt.

"Well, I guess that did it." Lara commented. She then looked over to Jo and saw a pistol in her hand. "Where did that come from?"

Joanna grinned. "You'd never make it as a secret agent."

"Unknown occupants." The voice announced.

"Uh-oh."

Lara's guns were already drawn. The recording that had been instructing Joanna suddenly shifted and spoke.

"Creto, defenses: alpha nine." It stated. "Do not fear. Creto will only attack if he sees aggressive action. Thank you for your help."

The hologram then disappeared.

"I think that means we'd better put our guns away." Lara suggested.

Not liking the situation any more, Joanna holstered her gun, but kept her hand on it. Lara did the same.

"Commencing repairs." The voice announced.

Feeling light-headed, Jo stumbled over to the pilot's chair and sat down. The voice ceased and numerous clunking and whirrs were heard as the ship commenced to repair itself.

"You alright?" Lara asked her.

"Fine." Joanna replied. "Just a little dizzy."

"Get a protein bar from my pack." Lara instructed her.

Jo did as she was instructed and fished out another protein bar. She grimaced at the site of it. These things were disgusting and hard to chew. She held her side and did what she could to rest without falling asleep as she chewed the chocolate-coated whey bar. She watched as the chamber warmed and the ice changed to a blue liquid. Slowly, the woman's body began to heal. Joanna sat back. Nothing to do now, but wait.

Author's note: My apologies to those waiting on Samus to actually come into the story. Lord willing, the next part which contains her will be posted sooner than this last one. Thank you for your reviews and your patience.


	8. Samus Revived

VIII. Samus Revived

Lara and Joanna watched as the blue liquid drained from the chamber, the lady sinking to her knees as the mask was removed and retraced into the walls. Both women stood pensively with their hands on their guns. There was a hiss of air and the chamber door slid open. Lara kneeled beside the slow-breathing Samus Aran, a hand on her back as Joanna kept an eye out for anything coming up on their rear through the lenses of her I.R. Scanner. Lara knew what she did was dangerous. But she knew as well that friendly gestures needed to be made. All the same, there was no telling what this woman was capable of, and Lara her other hand near her pistol, just in case.

"Samus." she called to her. "Samus Aran. Can you hear me?"

Samus' eyes slowly opened and stared dazed at the floor beneath her. She saw her hands coated with the gelatinous, blue liquid of the resuscitation chamber. Where was she? Was that the liquid from the chamber? How had she gotten there? Her mind became flooded with questions, but though she tried to recall what had happened, her mind was sealed. The memories were gone. Feeling a chill run through her body, she shivered. In her dazed state, a realization struck her.

'Frozen? I've been asleep. But my memories…how long was I asleep? Asleep? What happened? How did I get here?'

An image of an explosion flashed in her brain. A vague memory of her hand gripping a sharp object. Her eyes strayed and she viewed a large, jagged object on the floor beside her. She remembered the feeling of gripping it. But just as quickly as the memory came, it began to fade. 'No!' she thought to herself, and she strained her thoughts, forcing her mind into submission, dragging from her deep subconscious how she had come to be frozen and the horrible events that lead to it.

She had received a distress signal of unfamiliar makeup from what was thought to be a long-dead world. The Galactic Federation had also intercepted the signal but asked her to investigate and report back as she was in the area and the closest marine squad was several parsecs away. She had agreed, for a price of course. But it was a dead end, literally. The world had been dead for ages, and whatever had lived there had been dead almost as long. Whatever they had been, what was left of their structures were bizarre and jagged, as if their intelligence mimicked some ferocity of their natures. She found some interesting artifacts, but nothing more. Eventually, she tracked the source of the distress signal to a rocky arena. It was there that she discovered an old distress beacon that appeared to have toppled over onto its activation button. She deactivated it, and was about to report back when…

She struggled to remember. There was a beeping. Her visor displayed two brief energy surges from somewhere around her. She immediately jumped and rolled to her right, dodging a laser blast.

Hordes of space pirates suddenly began flooding the area. She quickly realized them to be the remnant of those she defeated on Zebes. Somehow they had escaped and set this trap for her. And she fell for it like a complete fool. She found herself surrounded by the monsters. Cursing her blindness, she switched to her missiles and began firing round after round. Their parts went flying all around her as the missiles impacted, but more flooded the area. She laid down a super bomb, ignited her speed booster and bolted from the area, plowing through the horde like a comet. She headed for her ship which she had directed to pick her up. She jumped atop only to be tackled by one of the pirates just as the hatch opened.

The thing clasped itself around her with a pair of immovable arms. It held on as the two were lowered into the ship. She couldn't get free. She couldn't even change into her morphball form. She expected the creature to try to crush her, for all the good its efforts would do, but her suit's sensors told her that it wasn't attempting to do so. It was just holding her immobilized. Samus didn't bother to think why. She just let the two of them be lowered into the ship and let Creto take care of the rest. A red bean shot out of a miniature barrel that had lowered out of the ceiling. The beam struck the creature's head, which then exploded, freeing the trapped bounty hunter. Samus then deactivated her suit and gave orders to Creto to leave the planet. Creto obeyed but sighted something about the corpse; some electronic pulse. Samus had turned just in time to see the body explode in a massive fireball. Something impacted her chest, and…her mind struggled to recall. She forced it into submission and the rest came quickly, but jaded.

She remembered pulling herself along the floor of the cockpit, her hand gripping something sharp. Creto's alarm was screaming in her ears. She couldn't breath. She pulled herself forward. Her heart pounded. Every move sent pain rippling through her body. Her head was spinning, or maybe it was the ship. There was a warm and wet sensation beneath her. She gripped a metal bar and felt herself sliding into the resuscitation chamber. The door slid closed. Something warm was trickling down her chin. The blue liquid began to fill the chamber. Her hand pulled on the object it had been gripping. Massive pain shot through her chest. She screamed as the mask enclosed about her face. And then…

Samus came back to reality. She could hear a voice calling her name. The accent was strange. Slowly, she raised her head to look upon the concerned face of Lara Croft.

"Can you understand me?" Lara questioned her. "Do you know where you are?"

Her dazed eyes seemed to linger and then strayed to Joanna standing there pensive, her hand still on her pistol. Samus' mouth moved to form a word, but instead of emitting a voice, her throat choked and she began to cough almost convulsively.

"Take it easy now." Lara told her. "You've recovered from a rather nasty wound."

At last the coughing fit ceased and Samus took in deep breaths. Her arms shook with weakness. She felt as if she could barely hold herself up. Again, she looked up at the two, her eyes slightly less dazed.

"Who…?" she managed before cringing at a pain in her head.

"It's alright." Lara told her. "We're friends. You're safe…at least, for the time being."

Samus looked up and followed Lara's eyes to Joanna and hers to the chamber beyond Creto's windshield and the men hard at work beyond.

"Creto." Samus called out through a few more coughs as she grabbed a metallic hand-hold sticking out of the wall and struggled to pull herself to her feet. "What is the status of the shields?"

"I'm afraid they are only at fifteen percent functional ability." The computer responded.

"Engage them." Samus said, at last getting to her feet, leaning heavily on her support. "And secure the ship."

"I am unable at this time to-"

"Then do it as soon as you can."

Joanna watched as a flash of light sparkled momentarily on the outside of the windshield and the men attempting to light a blow-torch upon it were thrown back. She then turned back to Samus. The tall woman stood leaning on the bar. Her breaths came deep and shaky. She shivered slightly with cold. Her wet hair lay partially in her face as her dark eyes darted between the two women. Even in her vulnerable and weakened state this woman was showing tremendous strength and control. Joanna was impressed…and more on guard than ever.

A billion questions ran through Samus' head, but she restrained them. They could wait. There was only one thing she needed to know.

"State your intentions." She said boldly, knowing she was at their mercy save for a command to Creto.

"It's alright." Lara stated. "We're here to help you. We're not your enemies."

Samus' eyes looked to Joanna.

"And you?"

"Nothing that has to do with you or this ship." Joanna replied flatly.

Creto's voice cut in.

"You would benefit to know, Samus, that the women you address are currently carrying four rather archaic firearms."

At the words, Samus' eyes moved to where Joanna's hands rested, then to Lara's hips and then back to Joanna's face.

"You intend to use that?"

"Only if I'm forced to."

Inwardly, Samus relaxed, ever so slightly.

"You won't be." She told her.

Without another word, Samus, rather unsteadily began to move past them. Lara reached out to help the young woman, but her efforts were waved off. The tall woman slowly made her way to a door-sized panel on the back wall, which slid open to another chamber as she approached. Leaning in the doorway, she looked back over her shoulder.

"Thank you. Creto, prepare some food for our guests."

She then turned and entered the further chamber, the door sliding closed and locking behind her.


	9. Discovery

IX. Discovery

"Brazil." Samus repeated back to Lara as she stared with a scrutinizing look on her face.

"Five-hundred meters below it actually." Lara corrected her.

While Samus had showered and changed, Creto had prepared a meal of re-hydrated pasta and chicken from the rear storage areas of the ship. Plates were presented out of a slot in the wall and a table and metallic cylinders acting as stools had risen out of the floor. Samus emerged adorned in a new jumpsuit, a towel across her shoulders just as the last plate was presented. She immediately grabbed it, sat herself on a metallic stool, and began to dig eagerly into her meal. She ate vigorously without speaking a word, or even looking up. After her first plate, she started on a second and began to ask Lara and Joanna about themselves and their whereabouts. Lara spoke for the both of them while Joanna stared through the red lenses of her I.R. Scanner, still not letting her guard down. As the facts came out, Samus had stopped her incessant eating. She now sat with her fork half-way to her mouth. She had been sitting that way for just under five minutes.

"And you say the earth year is nineteen-hundred and ninety-eight?" she asked.

"Mmm-hmm." Lara replied around a mouthful of noodles.

Samus then looked to Joanna.

"Don't look at me." Joanna shrugged. "It's two-thousand, twenty-three by my reckoning."

"Creto?"

"I'm afraid Ms. Croft is correct, Samus." Creto replied. "My scans indicate that we are currently located four-hundred, thirty-one feet below the surface of what was then known as the Brazilian rainforest. I have also confirmed the date via an orbiting satellite."

"Are you able to determine how we arrived here?"

"Not as yet. Many of my memory banks were damaged and will take some time to repair."

"You can go ahead and eat. It's not going to kill you." Samus directed her statement at Joanna as she resumed eating.

"Not hungry, thank you."

"You need to eat, Jo." Lara encouraged. "You're in no condition not to. Besides, it's very bad form to not eat when offered food when you're a stranger in a foreign culture."

Joanna looked uneasily at her meal.

"Will you relax?" Lara insisted. "I've been eating it and I'm not dead."

"Yet."

"Creto," Samus called. "If I wanted Joanna Dark dead, what would be my options?"

"Besides the numerous weapons and enhanced strength of your Chozo Suit?"

"Yes."

"You need only give a command and I would initiate one of one-hundred and thirty-seven security measures. Shall I list them?"

"Just their results."

"Ms. Dark would either be burned, frozen, skewered, crushed, sliced in two, blown up, incinerated, or, if we were in empty space, ejected into said empty space."

Samus looked at Jo.

"Eat your noodles."

Joanna stood up and walked to where the hatch stood overhead.

"I'd like to leave now."

Lara hurried after her as Samus grabbed Jo's plate and continued eating.

"Creto," Samus called. "Let Ms. Dark out."

"Jo, wait a second." Lara said, getting in front of the young agent as the platform lowered down.

"I don't care to stand here and be threatened by someone who doesn't even belong on this planet, thank you very much."

"You really expect to go out there with all those armed men who've already seen you with no cloak and a delicate wound on your side?"

"Wouldn't be the first time." Joanna stated as she moved past her.

"How do you expect to even get back out there when the switch is on the outside? 'Trapped with the blue lady forever' ring a bell?"

"I'll figure something out." Joanna replied coldly.

"Oh, that's no problem." Samus called, around her noodles. "Creto can blast her out."

Jo motioned a hand towards Samus in solution to Lara's questions.

"Not for another thirty-minutes at least, Samus." Creto announced.

Lara raised her arms. Joanna just shook her head and moved to stand on the platform.

"Fine, I'll wait outside."

"Come on, Jo." Lara pleaded. "An interstellar spaceship entombed in the ruins of a long dead civilization. This is the archeological find of a lifetime!"

"Your department, not mine." Joanna retorted. "Besides, I've already explained to you that between the skedar and the mayians, I've had quite enough of spaceships and aliens for a thousand lifetimes."

"Did you say the Skedar?" Samus called.

"Yes. What about it?" Joanna said, still anxious to get off the ship.

"And you're an archeologist?" Samus asked Lara.

Lara turned around, exasperated.

"Yes, but what does-"

"Creto." Samus called as she stood up and wiped her mouth with her towel. "Can you access my helm's memory banks?"

"Yes, I can, Samus." Creto answered.

"Pull it up and access index one, nine, five, five, eight." Samus instructed as she moved towards the control console. "You two may want to look at this."

The windshield suddenly became a viewer displaying an image of a weathered stone, upon which had been etched carvings of some unknown language. Samus turned back to Lara who was approaching with interest.

"Look familiar?" Samus asked her.

Lara looked at the figures.

"It…looks like Incan." Lara said. "But the symbols are slightly different."

"That was Creto's assessment as well. He searched his database and couldn't find any symbols matching these."

"I don't see what this has to do with me." Joanna called from the platform.

Samus turned to face her.

"This is an image of a stone tablet I found. It was discovered on an alien planet previously inhabited by the Skedar."

Lara looked up at Samus in surprise. Joanna stood pensive, rapping her fingers on her thigh. She knew what was coming next, and she hated it.

"Joanna," Samus stated. "Somehow, this writing found its way to an alien planet far into the future. Somehow, you and I have traveled backwards in time. And somehow, all three of us wound up in the same place at the same time. If what you tell me is true, there is a reason for the three of us coming together in this place. Something is happening that for some reason, involves all three of us. You may not like it, but this is too much of a coincidence for us to ignore. This ship may be your only way of discovering what is going on and your only way to get back home."

Joanna stood there, frustrated, rapping her fist on her thigh.

"Oh, bugger all. I know I'm going to regret this." She said as she stepped from the platform.


	10. Space

X. Space

"Creto, systems check."

"All systems nominal, Samus."

"Everybody strapped in and ready?"

"Ready." Lara replied from one of two additional chairs that had predictably lowered out of the wall.

"Strapped in at least." Joanna grumbled.

"Energizing engine power cells." Samus announced. "Commencing count down to take-off."

"It should be noted, Samus, that there are still several men in the immediate vicinity of the ship."

Samus looked up to view Von Croy, Pierre, and the many henchmen that filled the chamber and were now crawling all over the shielded ship. She had known their efforts to be utterly futile. She figured they were smart enough to figure that out as well and so she had forgotten about them. Samus pressed a button on her console, held down another, and spoke.

"This ship is about to blast its way free with a two-million kilowatt plasma cannon and then take off into deep space. Those of you who don't want to die should vacate the premises immediately."

As Samus spoke, a whirring could be heard overhead. The men's eyes had strayed to somewhere above the ship. Their stares became wide and they quickly scrambled out of the chamber, Pierre included. Only Von Croy remained staring bitterly into the windshield.

Lara immediately un-strapped her self, moved to the console and pressed the button she had seen Samus use.

"Don't be a fool, Werner." She said. "You'll be buried alive or blasted to noting. Neither of us wants that."

The old man stared angrily at the windshield, and it seemed to Lara, directly into her eyes. His voice, crackly and bitter, came through the speaker on the console.

"This isn't over, my young protégé." He cranked. "I shall see you again."

"Count on it." Lara replied.

Von Croy picked up Joanna's gun and cast a last glance at the ship. He then slowly turned and hobbled out of the chamber. Lara stared after him. She knew it was no idle threat. How it would be played out was anyone's guess.

"Are you done?" Samus asked Lara.

"For now." Lara replied.

The treasure hunter then moved back to her seat and strapped herself in, her thoughts mulling over her old teacher's words.

As Samus initiated the countdown and lowered the shields, a whirring was again heard above their heads. Joanna gripped her seat tightly. Several vibrations rippled through the ship followed by what sounded like hail on the hull of the ship. Joanna closed her eyes as she felt the ship began to shake.

Samus's voice rang clearly in her ears as she counted down from five, each number seeming to cause the ship to shake more and more violently. Joanna swallowed. A tremendous force suddenly pushed down on her. She gritted her teeth as the feeling continued for several seconds, though it felt like an eternity. Then, just as quickly, it was gone and she felt weightless…and sick.

"Initiating artificial gravity." Came Samus' voice.

Joanna felt herself plop back into the seat and she opened her eyes. She breathed heavily, leaned her head back and thanked whomever was listening that she was alive.

"We're clear of the atmosphere." Samus told the two of them, drawing their attention. "You can move about normally now, if you like."

"Where are we headed?" Lara asked her.

"That's really up to you." Samus replied, spinning around in her chair. "I doubt anything I know exists in this time period. We need to find a way to reverse whatever it was that brought us here. Once we're back to where I came from, we can head to the planet where I found that tablet and see if we can find anything more."

"We should head to the Mayian homeworld." Came Joanna's voice. "We're not the only ones in the wrong time period, I'm afraid."

"Oh." Lara exclaimed. "I'd forgotten all about your friend."

"Right." Joanna replied, standing up and leaning heavily on the wall. "He may have a better clue as to how we got here."

"What are the coordinates?" Samus asked her as she spun back to her console.

"How should I know?" Joanna responded. "Do I look like a space traveler to you? Don't answer that."

"Well he took off in a space ship." Lara suggested. "Can't we track his vapor trail or something?"

"Creto." Samus called. "See if you can find any traces of a trail left by a ship's engines."

After a moment, Creto's voice sounded clear in the chamber.

"There is a slight ion trail that tracks back to the forest from whence we came."

"Track it and set a course."

"There now." Lara told Joanna. "Aren't you glad you came?"

"No." Joanna replied. "Do you have a bathroom?"

Samus looked to Joanna who was looking quite flushed.

"Through that back room to your left." Samus directed her.

"Jo, maybe you should lie down." Lara told her.

Joanna shook her head as she moved away.

"I'm fine…"

But she did not make it far before collapsing, Lara moving to catch her. Samus got up and helped Lara move the unconscious agent into the resuscitation chamber. They moved the mask over her face and then stepped back as Samus pressed a button on the wall. The door slid shut and the chamber filled with the blue liquid. Samus looked at the readings on Jo's vitals. Seeing the concussion and laceration on her side, she turned to Lara.

"What was she doing walking around in that condition?"

"Being a stubborn fool, if you ask me." Lara replied. "How long will it take her to heal?"

"An hour, maybe." Samus replied. "I'm not really sure. Up till now I've been the only one to use this chamber."

"Well it shouldn't make much of a difference, should it? I mean, you are human."

Samus looked at her. The bounty huntress' face showed no emotion, but her dark eyes hid something deep within her that Lara couldn't place.

"You should get some rest while you can." Samus replied coldly, moving back to sit in her chair.

*******************

"I think I've got it."

Samus turned around in her chair. Lara was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, staring down at the portable display unit Samus had given her. On her right was a brown, hardback book sitting open to a page filled with notes. On her left was a few pieces of notebook paper with the symbols from Samus' find scrawled out hastily, Lara's attempt at a translation below it. One thing Lara had never done well while on a job, was rest. She had spent the past two hours studying and translating the hieroglyphs Samus had found. She wasn't at all regretful. This sort of thing filled her with an energy and fire like no amount of sleep ever could.

"You've managed to translate it?" Samus asked her.

"Well, I can't be sure without more of the language to work with, but the symbols aren't as dissimilar as I first thought."

Lara stood, ignoring the pain in her legs that came from sitting in one position too long and walked over to the console. Samus set down the mug she had been holding and pulled the image up on the main viewer.

"If my guess is right…" Lara said as she traced her finger along the symbols on the viewer "…this says, '…fire…all consuming and unquenchable. It,' or 'He…in the light,' or 'is the light. Follow the narrow way. The way…everlasting. The living waters. It is…'"

"What?"

"It's this last symbol. I've never seen anything even close to it. It looks Egyptian. But paired with these other symbols, I haven't the foggiest what it could mean."

Samus looked at the last symbol. A bird-like humanoid sat with hands before it, palms open as if receiving or offering something to some unseen figure. She knew it as soon as she saw it. The mystery had just gotten deeper.

A beeping drew the women's attention to the resuscitation chamber. The liquid was quickly draining. The two walked over as Joanna slowly sunk to the floor.

The door slid open and Lara helped the slowly waking agent to her feet.

"How do you feel?" she asked her.

A little dazed, Joanna looked down at the viscous liquid that covered her body.

"Slimy." Was her reply. "What happened?"

"You passed out." Lara replied. "I told you not to push yourself."

Joanna just looked herself over.

"It'll take me a week to get this stuff out of my uniform. Oh, no, my equipment!"

"The liquid of the chamber evaporates off of anything inorganic within a half-hour, leaving no trace behind." Came Samus' voice. "Unfortunately, that does nothing for your skin. You'll find a shower in that back room where I pointed you before."

Samus then walked back over to her chair and sat down, facing the view screen and the image of the hieroglyph filled tablet it displayed. Samus pressed a button, removing the image and revealing the vast empty space that flew past them in brilliant streaks of white light. The bounty huntress picked up her mug and sat, contemplating.

"Thank you, Lara, I can walk." Joanna said, moving to stand on her own.

"Right. Just you be careful. You were right what you said before. We don't exactly know how things work here."

Joanna stood there a moment, her hair soaked and the blue liquid oozing down her face. She hadn't said such words to Lara. The closest her words had come were concern about Samus and her trustworthiness. But she had just decided to chalk it up to a dislike of aliens in general, given her recent experience. But now as she looked at the experienced treasure hunter, she thought she noticed Lara dart her eyes toward Samus and then back. Lara then stared at her intently. Immediately, Jo caught on.

"Right." She said as she nodded, and then added a smile. "I might try to turn on the shower and wind up blowing up the toilet. Thanks."

Joanna then moved past Lara, giving her a pat on the shoulder and headed for the back room. Samus sipped her mug, her mind mentally checking the different security measures she had available outside of Creto's intervention, including the pistol beneath the console and the one resting comfortably in the hidden chair slot next to her thigh.


	11. Theory

XI. Theory

Joanna stepped out of the shower, running a towel over her short hair as her eyes looked around the small room that made up Samus' sleeping quarters.

Her bed was as small as someone of Samus' height would allow, and very plain. Hanging strategically on the wall beside the door was a wooden staff, smooth with age and simply decorated. On the wall next to Jo, facing the bed was a tattered tapestry, surrounded by children's drawings of a human child interacting with what looked like a bird-like race. The tapestry was decorated in geometric designs running both vertically and horizontally. In between the patterns were what looked to Jo like Egyptian hieroglyphs, except every character appeared to be of the same bird-like race as those in the drawings. Jo noted a particular symbol in the center of the tapestry: A bird-like humanoid sat with hands before it, palms open as if receiving or offering something to some unseen figure. She recognized it from the image Samus had showed them in brief before they took off. She noted the oddity in her mind and then turned, surveying briefly the room, noting the best places to hide a pistol. She then proceeded out into the cockpit area, her hand lightly brushing the doorway as she exited.

"Have we arrived yet?" she asked, draping the towel over her shoulders and smoothing her hair.

"We're approaching the planet now." Samus answered, pressing a series of buttons on her console.

Joanna glanced behind her to see Lara sitting up against the wall. Her dark shades covered her eyes and her head was bowed. Jo noted how her arms were crossed, her hands a good distance from her guns. Still, as she looked at her, something seemed unsettled, as if at a moment's notice, she could be on her feet, guns drawn, her enemy dead-to-rights before she was even fully awake. Perhaps she would make a good spy after all.

"Would you like to do the honors?"

Joanna looked back at the screen. The Mayian homeworld loomed in front of them and Samus gestured towards it. Catching her meaning, Jo cleared her throat.

"This is Joanna Dark." Jo said awkwardly. "Um…I'm a friend of Elvis. Did he make it back here? Is he alright?"

Jo looked back at Samus to see how she had done. The stunned bounty hunter stared wide-eyed at Joanna.

"Well pardon me if I'm not very experienced at contacting an alien species." Jo snapped.

"Greetings, human Dark."

Jo looked back at the screen to see a gray, teardrop-shaped head staring back at her with large, solid, black eyes.

"Elvis! You're alri-"

"The one you know as Elvis arrived here yesterday. He is recuperating and will be well again soon. Upon his arrival, he mentioned you and will be eager to see you. We will transmit coordinates for you to land."

"Thank you." Jo replied.

"You are most welcome."

With that, the image disappeared and the screen once again showed the looming planet.

"Are you sure these aliens are non-hostile?" Samus asked as her console indicated the receiving of a transmission.

"Only if you don't consider a barrage of bad jokes hostile." Joanna replied.

Samus tapped a few buttons and the ship moved in to land at the transmitted coordinates. The ship sailed through the thick clouds of mikrium, a rainbow of colors flashing and shifting before them. It was a brilliant sight and Jo couldn't help but smile at its beauty. The ship came to land gently and effortlessly upon a landing pad. The Mayians had already built an air tube and were moving it to the ship.

"You might want to let them know where to hook that up." Jo instructed Samus. "I'd rather not get sucked into a vacuum."

Samus did so and Jo walked towards the platform, noting again the sleeping Lara.

"Should we wake Lara?" Jo asked Samus.

"I'll stay here with her." Samus replied, not having risen from her chair. "I have some things I need to tend to with the ship. Don't worry. I won't take off without you. Just see if your friend knows how we might get back to our own times."

Samus spoke with the authority of Daniel Carrington. Jo didn't much like that, but didn't let it bother her, noting instead that Samus had previously done a diagnostic on the ship and all systems read as nominal.

The sound of pressurized air echoed overhead and Jo stepped onto the platform. She noted one last time Samus sitting with her back to her, her hands tapping various buttons on her control panel. As the platform began to rise, Jo's hand reached lazily to the inside of the hatch and brushed its metallic surface.

The walk was short and the Mayians, happy to have a visitor from Earth, led Jo to a chamber filled with empty glass tubes, each large enough to house one of their kind per tube. One lay filled with a blue liquid and floating in the midst of it was Elvis. Jo didn't know how, but she knew it was him.

"He is conscious." Said her guide. "You can speak with him if you like. He'll be fully healed within a few hours."

With that her guide left her and Jo was left staring at the seemingly unconscious alien. His black eyes stared out into nothing. She had forgotten the Mayians didn't have eyelids. Jo suddenly felt very uncomfortable and understood why people were so terrified of these annoying little aliens.

"Elvis?" she called aloud. "Can you hear me?"

"Clear as a bell on a cow's neck that we took and experimented on, Joanna." Came Elvis' voice in her head.

Jo shook her head. Definitely Elvis.

Samus sat in her bedroom, her eyes fixed on a large screen that had been hidden in the wall. The screen displayed a single-perspective, black and white image of Lara wandering about and examining the ship and Joanna underneath the console, attempting to repair it. Their conversation from before Samus awoke played back in crystal clarity. Motion-triggered security cameras were great things.

"I don't like it." Came Joanna's voice.

The agent had made no secret of her distrust of Samus. Why did she trust Lara? Samus couldn't figure, though she herself didn't trust either of them, or anyone for that matter. Her distrust of people kept her distant from those around her, but she had decided long ago that it was the best choice. It was just safer that way.

"Neither do I." Came Lara's voice.

Lara was probably just as guarded as the both of them, though she hid it much better. She didn't allow it to get in the way of being friendly and even being herself. Samus would have envied that ability, if she could even understand how such a thing could be possible. But somehow, Lara pulled it off and Samus had to remember not to let her guard down around her.

Samus cocked an eyebrow. That must have been it. Lara's easy-going nature had drawn Joanna in. But Jo seemed too sharp and too paranoid for that. She would have to talk to the two of them more. At the thought, Samus groaned. She hated being social.

"So you have no idea how we arrived here?" Jo asked the little gray alien.

"I'm afraid not, Joanna." Elvis replied from inside his tube. "One second we're decelerating towards Earth, the next, we're hurtling towards it. Who knows at what point the time-transfer happened. But one thing I can do once I'm better is to board my ship and see if I can't find out what happened and then duplicate the process. Say 'Goodbye, retro-Joanna', 'Hello, thoroughly-modern Joanna.'"

Jo would have rolled her eyes if they were not so busy examining the chamber in which Elvis floated.

"Elvis." She said. "Can I ask you about this chamber?"

"Its design was a gift from another race of aliens called the Chozo."

"Are they a bird-like race?"

"They were. They disappeared from this area of space long ago, but not before leaving behind traces of their technology. Some of it you humans acquired from my downed space craft in Area Fifty-one. Your visors and some other items you have are based on Chozo technology."

"That makes things very interesting." Jo mumbled.

Samus emerged from her bed chamber to see Lara still sitting on the floor, her hands now rubbing her eyes as she attempted to wake herself. Samus looked to the screen and noted the shifting colors and the little, gray aliens going to and fro about the area as she thought about the video she had just watched. She wasn't sure the extent of the damage the ship had taken, but she suspected the repairs should not have taken three hours. What had Joanna been doing all of that time?

"My memory banks have been repaired, Samus." Creto informed his mistress. "I can now determine what it was that brought us to this time period and may be able to duplicate the process."

"Give me a read-out." Samus said, moving to her chair.

Samus read the un-translated Chozo words as they filled the small screen on the control panel. Lara walked up behind her, stretching her body. She'd slept in less comfortable places, but such a position still left one's body stiff.

After several moments, Samus sat back in her chair and stared into the viewscreen. The large screen revealed Joanna standing in the middle of the air tube, staring at the ship, her hand on her hip. Samus reached out and tapped a button. The viewscreen instantly zoomed in on Joanna's face. Her eyes were dark and full of thought as well as things deeply hidden. Her face was inexpressive and unreadable. Samus tapped a finger, wondering.

"So, do we have a solution?" Lara said, tired of waiting.

Samus watched as Joanna spoke with a Mayian who promptly ran off afterwards. Joanna then proceeded down the air tube towards the ship.

"What did you say the date was?" Samus asked without looking at Lara.

"April fourth, Nineteen, Nintey-Eight." Lara replied. "Why?"

"And Joanna appeared in the Earthen sky yesterday, April third."

"That's right. Something peculiar about that date?"

"Peculiar isn't the word."

A clicking and whirring was heard as the hatch opened and Joanna was lowered down on the metallic platform. Samus spun around in her chair.

"You're certain the date was April third when you left your own time period?" Samus asked her.

A little surprised at the question, Jo cast a questioning glance at Lara who merely shrugged.

"Yes." Jo replied. "What about it?"

Samus regarded the both of them before speaking once more.

"According to my ship's memory and its internal clock, my ship went into a spin and somehow arrived on Earth, April third in the Earth year Thirty."

"Thirty?" Lara echoed her. "As in Thirty A.D.?"

"Why?" Joanna asked. "What's so significant about that year?"

"Well, aside from the fact that she's been asleep for almost two-thousand years," Lara replied. "a lot happened that year, not the least of which was the crucifixion, and some say resurrection, of Jesus of Nazereth, the founder of the Christian religion."

"Oh, lovely." Jo spouted. "First aliens, then time-travel, now resurrected god-people. I suppose next we'll have…oh, bugger-all I can't even think of anything more ridiculous."

"I wouldn't discount it so quickly, Jo." Lara said. "Every legend has some basis in fact."

Jo just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Look, the year wasn't my point." Samus interrupted. "The point I was trying to make, is that all three of us wound up arriving at April third at the same location. My ship's sensors didn't record any anomalous event, portal, wormhole, or anything. My ship just somehow appeared on Earth at that date and place as I suspect your ship did, Joanna. Whatever happened brought all three of us together. So it seems to me that all three of us need to be present at that same location for it to happen again."

"And for us to be thrown even further back in time?" Lara asked. "What's to stop that from happening?"

"Maybe nothing." Samus replied. "But it's been my experience that any step, even backwards, reveals more truth about where you need to go next. Sometimes it's just best to dive in and see what happens."

"There's just one problem with your theory:" Jo said. "I wasn't the only one to come back from my time period. It was Elvis' ship that brought me to Earth and he was on board at the time as well."

"But you were unconscious at the time and Elvis wasn't, right?" Samus asked.

"Yes."

"So was I."

Jo nodded.

"I'm beginning to see what you mean."

"Have you two forgotten that I was neither unconscious nor on a space ship nor thrown through any kind of portal to arrive here?" said Lara.

"Yes, Lara, but you didn't time-travel either." Jo told her. "Elvis was conscious because he probably didn't need to be unconscious to survive whatever happened."

"So the two of you time-traveled while unconscious which links you together and you were brought to my precise location which links you to me."

"Exactly." Said Jo.

"You're right." Lara said, crossing her arms. "Peculiar isn't the word. Especially since we still have no idea what caused the two of you to time-travel."

"Whatever the cause, we are somehow all linked." Samus suggested. "Something brought the three of us together and we need to find out what. Jo, you said Elvis was with you. Maybe he's not a part of this equation, but it wouldn't hurt to have him come along."

"He is." Said Joanna. "He's standing by in his ship. He'll travel to the estimated point in space where his ship came through while we travel to the one your ship came through. I'm assuming you didn't come from this section of space."

Samus sat for a moment, wondering how Joanna knew that.

"Yes." She said, not revealing her thoughts. "That's correct."

"Well then I'd say that's our best bet." Said Jo. "Elvis is ready when we are. Just open your communications link and he'll tap in."

Samus regarded Jo a moment.

"Four hours ago you weren't nearly this eager." Samus challenged her. "What's changed?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but as anxious as I am to get back to some sense of normalcy, the longer I spend thinking about this, the more I tend to agree with the two of you. There's something more to this than we're seeing and I don't care to be left in the dark about it. I want to know what this is all about and who's behind it."

"Who?" Lara echoed her.

"There's an intelligence at work here." Jo replied. "And I think Samus would agree with me. I've spent my life asking the question 'who?' and discerning dumb luck from design. It's not something. It's someone. I want to know who and why."

She then turned to Samus and spoke with the authority of Daniel Carrington.

"Open your comms link and let's get moving."


	12. Map

XII. Map

"Why 'Perfect Dark'?" Samus asked, looking at Jo who sat in her seat across from the pilot chair.

"You mean besides the fact that 'Dark' is my last name?" Jo sarcastically replied as she chewed on a sandwich.

They had been traveling for six hours. The ship flew through space at a rate faster than Elvis' ship could manage and it still took a long time to get to the coordinates Creto had input to the computer. Jo and Lara took the time to catch up on much-needed sleep. Having been in stasis for two-thousand years, sleep was the last thing on Samus' mind. She knew, however, that she needed to get her body back into a regular routine and so forced herself to lie down for a half-hour. After that, she ran extensive tests on the circuitry and the rest of the ship, trying to determine what Jo had been up to, but finding nothing out of place. Eventually Jo awakened famished and asked for something to eat. She may have been paranoid about eating Samus' food, but she knew she couldn't go without and so finally gave in. Samus forced herself into a conversation with the young agent while Lara slept.

"Something tells me that's not the only reason." Samus suggested.

Jo smiled.

_She's a sharp one, all right._

"Well, the 'Perfect' comes from my scores on the firing range which were all one-hundred percent all the time. My boss gave it to me. But I like the combination simply for the fact that I've always preferred the darkness. No one can see you there. You're perfectly safe, perfectly free to do whatever you like, and no one can say a word about it. It's perfect."

Samus did not reply, but stared at her. This was a woman who knew what she was doing and in her own time period, was likely a force to be reckoned with. Her mind was as sharp as the shrapnel that had pierced Samus' chest and the hardened bounty hunter knew she could not afford to let her guard down around her. Such a thing could be deadly, especially if she got on her bad side.

Joanna just stared back as she ate her sandwich.

"We're approaching the coordinates, Samus." Creto's voice called out.

Samus swiveled her chair back to the console.

"Anything unusual?" she asked.

"Nothing yet, Samus." Creto replied.

"Keep your sensors on maximum, all ranges. Watch out for anything."

Silence followed for several lingering moments. Still, Creto found no signal and still Samus found nothing unusual in her sensor readouts.

"Creto?" Samus finally asked.

"I'm not detecting anything unusual, Samus." Creto replied. "However, the stellar pattern is inconsistent with our own time period."

Samus slammed her hand down onto the console in frustration. Lara woke at the sound and looked around. Realizing nothing was wrong, she stood up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Stretching, she cracked several bones and looked to the two women.

"We seem to be having a problem." Jo said, still eating her sandwich.

"Didn't work, eh?" Lara inquired.

"What didn't work?" Jo asked, stuffing the last piece of sandwich in her mouth and dusting her hands.

"Well, we thought if we were all asleep, whatever brought the two of you to my time might happen again. It was a long shot, but it was the only idea I had."

"Would have been nice if you had informed me about that."

"Sorry. I came up with it after you were already out. No sense waking you just to tell you to go back to sleep."

"Alright." Joanna said, standing up. "So we're still in your time which means the Skedar are still inhabiting their planet. Which means we can't go back to where Samus found that artifact, unless you feel like battling through a horde of savage, bloodthirsty aliens just to see if we can find some clues."

"Can you bring up that image again, Samus?" Lara asked.

Samus complied and pulled up the image of the tablet on the main viewer.

Lara examined the image carefully, her mind separating and highlighting words, her thoughts coming out through her voice.

"…fire…all consuming…unquenchable…light…follow…narrow way…way everlasting…living waters…it is…"

Revelation came to her mind and she leaned forward, placing her hands on the console.

"Ten-to-one this is a map." She said confidently.

"A map?" Joanna asked, looking at her, "What makes you say that?"

"Look at the wording." Lara replied, pointing to the image as if the other two could decipher it. "Fire, light, water…I'm not sure how the narrow way fits in, but I'm betting it's linked with the way everlasting. If we follow these clues, we may find whatever it is this tablet is pointing to."

"Well that doesn't do us much good." Jo pointed out. "This tablet was on the Skedar holy planet. Whatever it leads to is down there, which means we can't get to it."

"Not necessarily." Lara stated. She then pointed to the bird-like figure on the end. "This figure could be the key to this whole puzzle. If we knew what it meant, it might lead us to a starting point, possibly someplace the Skedar have never even visited."

"There's a lot of 'IF's' in that theory. At any rate we _don't_ know what it means so we're still up a creek without a paddle."

"No, we're not." Samus' voice cut a swath through their conversation. She had been sitting quietly, listening to every word and, at the same time, staring at the chozo symbol prominently displayed on the screen, her mind working through possibilities and finally coming to a determined solution.

At her comment, the two women looked at her.

"The symbol is from a people called the Chozo." She explained, still staring at the screen. "Depending on its use, it can mean different things: knowledge, wisdom, peace. But in this context, it seems to hold it's deepest and rarest meaning: truth."

"Well I don't see how that helps us." Joanna commented, not at all surprised at Samus' knowledge.

"The Chozo were migratory and inhabited many worlds. On a planet called Elysia, there's a lore among the Chozo.

'_At the highest point of our city lies the fountain, a wellspring of pure water that flows throughout our civilization. It is the jewel of the Chozo, the life-giver, and yet its waters speak of a clouded future. As we come to understand the paths of time and space more clearly, we have begun to glimpse rough tatters of past and future, glittering behind reality like soft lights behind a curtain. We have seen the fountain in these glimpses, pouring darkness instead of water, and we cannot guess what the visions mean._'"

Samus fell silent then, as did the two women standing behind her as they contemplated the words. It was Joanna who broke the silence.

"Well, that sounds rather bleak." She said bluntly.

"Tantalizing, I'd call it." Lara said with an excited grin. "'Fountain', 'life-giver', 'living waters'. It matches up perfectly. 'Paths of time and space', your transports to my time and location; it's incredible! This tablets was left on a Skedar planet. Out of the three of us, only I could translate it. But it was clearly written by the Chozo, of which only Samus has knowledge. This was clearly meant for all three of us to find…"

Her voice trailed off and her grin fell as the words left her lips. There was among the three women an ominous sense hovering over them, as though they were but ants under the watchful eye and careful manipulation of an intelligence far greater than they could conceive. It was haunting.

"You _would_ find all that tantalizing." Jo said, at last breaking the silence. "I'm more concerned about the fountain pouring darkness instead of water."

"Why didn't you tell us about the Chozo before?" Lara inquired of Samus.

"Wasn't relevant." Samus replied, still facing forward.

"Wasn't relevant?" Lara repeated in exasperation. "We- You- Ugh!"

Lara wrung her fists and paced around the cockpit, steamed at what she saw as a lack of reverence some people had for things of the past. After a few moments, she stopped pacing, took in a deep breath, and blew it out again. Her hands opened and she shook them out, attempting to remind herself that not everyone was like her and she would always encounter this.

"Alright." She said, her temper finally cooled. "So I take it we need to go to this planet…Elysia and find this fountain."

"I've already laid in a course and engaged the engines. We'll be there in a few hours." Samus coolly replied.

"Good." Lara stated. "The sooner the better."


	13. Tallon IV

XIII. Tallon IV

The planet of Tallon IV loomed ominously before the three women as Samus's ship approached.

"'It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hand of the living God.'"

Jo looked at Lara who stood staring at the screen with her arms crossed.

"What?" she asked.

"It's from the Bible." Lara replied. "Just thinking out loud."

Lara didn't say any more and Jo didn't care to ask, but rather turned back to look at the planet growing larger and closer as they approached.

"We're about to enter the atmosphere." Samus told them from her pilot chair. "You may want to strap yourselves in."

The two women complied, Jo being a bit more hurried about the matter. The planets surface lomed ever closer on the viewscreen. Joanna turned away and shut her eyes. Tremors ran through the hull and Joanna shut her eyes tight and cringed at the feeling as the ship dove into the atmosphere of the seemingly earth-like planet. The tremors quickly died away as the ship entered the lower atmosphere and began speeding towards it destination. The women watched, Jo now more comfortable with looking since the tremors stopped, as white wisps of clouds streaked past the ship back-dropped by mountains and landscapes seemingly metallic in nature. At last the streaks slowed and went out of sight as the ship lowered its altitude and finally landed with a final soft tremor.

Samus unstrapped herself and stood. Turning, she stopped when she saw the two women getting up from their seats. Hey eyes went from one to the other.

"What's wrong?" Lara asked when she noticed Samus staring at them.

Samus hesitated a moment, considering each of them, if they were up for the potential of what they may face.

Without a word, she headed over to the opposite wall and put her hand to a certain spot. A panel opened and she pulled out two objects. Walking back over to Lara and Jo, she held out grip first what looked to them like futuristic laser pistols.

"There's no telling what we may encounter out there." she said. "There are certain creatures, large and gelatinous. If you see them, you'll need to use these. Projectiles won't do any good unless you do. They have a limited charge so don't use them unless you have to."

The women reluctantly took the pistols, each giving theirs a once-over in their hands. Jo tested the sight on hers.

"Can you set your communicator to constantly broadcast?" Samus asked Joanna.

"Audio or video?" Jo asked.

"Both would be best." Samus replied, walking over to the console. "Set it to do so. I'll have Creto sync it with mine and the one I have for Lara."

Samus then walked over and handed Lara a small, ovacular object.

"This will always be on. You should be able to constantly hear us and we you. Just in case we get separated."

"What about you?" Joanna asked as Lara pinned the communicator to her shirt. "I assume you're not planning on going out in your swimsuit."

"No." Samus replied. "I'm not."

Her left hand suddenly lit up with an intense, purple glow. Samus then flung her arms and head back. Instantly, a bright beam of the same hue shot out from her chest. Brilliant light mixed with waves of cloud-like energy issued forth, covering her body in an array of colors. It coalesced and solidified in a few seconds and she suddenly stood before them in a full suit of yellow and red armor. Her eyes opened and stared back at them through a visor of green, her right hand having been replaced by a formidable-looking, forearm-length cannon. Lara and Joanna just stood staring at her with wide eyes.

"Well," Lara said at last, looking at Joanna. "I think she's got you beat."

"I'll say." Jo replied, looking over the new Samus. "You wouldn't happen to have any spares of those, would you?"

"Sorry." Samus replied, her voice coming through an external speaker. "Frankly, I don't feel too comfortable with this. You two are almost completely unprotected. If we encounter something-"

"No offense, Samus," Lara interrupted, a bit annoyed , "but I've encountered everything from ancient guardians, to dinosaurs, to flying demi-gods. And from what Jo tells me, she's had regular dealings with small armies and she's obviously still alive. Your armor is quite impressive and I'm sure that cannon isn't just for show. But we do have our own skills and experience with this sort of thing. We'll manage."

Samus did not reply, but contemplated Lara's words as she activated her visor. It flashed green and took on a mirrored finish. Inside her helmet, Samus noticed the suit's energy charge and command symbols that awaited a glance or mental command. But her eyes remained on the two women. Somehow, she knew Lara's words to be genuine. Experience would tell if they were true.

Moving past them, Samus stepped into the hatch area. Strangely, the platform did not lower, but rather, a small circle appeared around Samus' feet and the area on which she stood lowered down out of the ship. Lara and Jo gave each other concerned glances.

Samus looked around, her arm cannon aimed before her. Nothing dangerous was in sight.

"Let's do a communications check." She said aloud.

"I read you." Came Lara's voice.

"Joanna?" Samus asked after not getting a response.

A small window appeared in the upper-left of Samus' visor showing the interior of her ship.

"Sorry." Joanna replied. "Had to activate my lenses. My tech isn't as advanced as yours. Do you have a visual?"

"Confirmed." Samus replied. "Looks all clear out here."

Samus then moved away from the platform and allowed the two women to exit the ship. Lara came first, Jo coming out with her gun already drawn and the gun Samus had given her in her holster. She held her weapon barrel-down, both hands on the grip. Samus saw her readiness and wondered at Lara who seemed just as she had been, save that she was looking around, taking in their surroundings.

"Stay close." Samus instructed them. She then moved out from under the ship, leading the two ladies in a deliberate direction. Lara followed behind Samus, looking casually around, but mostly ahead to their intended destination. Jo brought up the rear, pensive and turning this way and that, keeping her eyes open for anything potentially hostile through the lenses of her I. R. Scanner. But there was nothing. All around her, there was nothing but the bizarre structures of an ancient city. Much of the area had become overgrown with vegetation. No one had lived here for long, long time. Ahead of them, up a steep incline of steps, and looming over them, was an immense, square, pyramid-like structure revealing similarities, Lara noted, to those of the Incan and mezzo-American styles.

Suddenly, Samus stopped in her tracks. Her head was cocked, staring up at the structure.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Jo asked.

"This is wrong." Samus replied. She then turned and looked back behind them. Her scanner zoomed in on a patch of moss on a nearby structure. The scan revealed it to be a type of moss needing hundreds of years and undisturbed conditions to grow to its current state. Samus then looked back to the structure before them. "This place should not be like this."

"Like what? Lara asked.

"We're still supposed to be in your time." Samus replied, still looking ahead. "If that's true, this place should not look like this. The Chozo inhabited this planet long ago in my time. But in yours…"

"They should still be here?" Lara finished her thought.

"Yes." Samus replied. "And this fountain should be flowing with water, not dried up."

The two women behind her looked to the large structure. It stood several kilometers tall with several openings where water may have once flowed through. Busts of bird heads poked out in various places.

"Creto," Samus called out. "You said the stellar pattern was inconsistent with our own time period. Based on the data you have in your memory banks, can you determine if the pattern indicates post or pre?"

"The calculations will take some time, Samus." Creto replied. "But I should be able to give you a rough estimation of time difference and direction."

"Contact me as soon as you have a solution, however approximate." Samus then turned to the others, her eyes once again visible through the green of her visor. "Did you copy that?"

"Yes." Lara replied. "It's rather peculiar, but at the moment, it doesn't make much of a difference."

"What do you mean?" Samus asked.

"The tablet referenced the lore which led us here. Regardless of what time we're in, this is where we need to start our search."

Samus nodded. "Agreed. Let's keep moving." Her visor flashed, once again hiding her eyes. She turned and continued on, the others following close behind.

They soon reached the base of the structure. Chozo busts jutted out in weather-worn detail, remnants of once stunning artwork. Their hollow eyes stared at the three women, their beaks open in silent warning. Narrow openings too small for them to enter covered the structure in various shapes and locations. Samus stared at it, the familiarity of its design striking her with homesickness.

"Well, what now?" came Joanna's voice.

"The tablet spoke of two other elements, fire and light, and a pathway." Lara stated, looking up at the structure. "The fire was described as being unquenchable, so it's likely a place where the water of the fountain didn't touch. Do you happen to know how the water flow of this fountain went?"

"I'm afraid not." Samus replied.

"Right." Lara continued. "Let's split up. Look for places devoid of water erosion near one of these openings, particularly something that looks like a torch-holder or a cauldron. The tablet also spoke of light so look for places that aren't hidden from the sunlight."

Joanna was still pensive as she turned to Lara.

"Are you that's a good id-"

"I'll take the top tier and work my way down." Samus interrupted.

"I'll start in the middle." Lara complied. "Jo, you have a look around down here."

Before Joanna could object further, Lara and Samus began leaping and climbing up the enormous, metallic blocks. Jo covered her mic and muttered out, "Thanks, a lot."

By the time Lara reached the middle tier, Samus had already made it to the top. Lara began moving around the structure, running her hand over the strange, metallic rock, feeling and seeing erosion and determining by her best guess the places that had received the least of it.

Jo walked along the bottom, dividing her attention between the fountain and the surrounding area. It was fortunate the fountain was built at a higher elevation than the rest of the city. There wasn't much chance of getting ambushed unless it was from inside the fountain. Her eyes searched the wall beside her and frustration crept into her mind.

"Erosion, erosion." She muttered. "Oh, this is blooming ridiculous. I don't even know what I'm looking for."

Reaching up, she pressed a button on her earpiece and her red lenses exchanged for orange ones as she activated her x-ray lenses.

Samus watched as the small video link to Joanna first went down and then came back up in a strange array of orange, green, and red. She wasn't quite sure what she was looking at until a Chozo bust came into view and then partially vanished as its hollow inside was displayed. Just then the sun peaked through the clouds and shone upon her visor. Samus looked out over the vast ruins stretching in all directions. She saw how the plant-life had so overgrown it that she could barely pick out any sign of Chozo architecture. The melancholy feeling that had come to her at the base of the fountain now washed over her all the more. The sight was a visual reminder of the extinction of her adoptive family's race…her race. Their memory was ebbing away. She was all that was left. And, eventually, she would follow them.

The melancholy turned to sadness and she sat down, still looking out over the ruins. She had spent much of her adult life traversing mazes and defeating enemies. She had always found a way out. She had always emerged the victor. But in this maze, she could find no escape. There was only death.

_Old Bird._ She called out in her mind. _Where are you when I need you?_

"Samus, I've finished the calculations."

Creto's words cut through her depression. She still had a mission to complete. Shoving aside her thoughts, she stood and viewed the other two far below her.

"What did you find?" she inquired.

"The stellar pattern is consistent with one that would exist approximately nineteen-hundred years after your native time period."

"That's a long time." Came Lara's voice over the com link.

"I think I may have found something." Joanna said, her visual displaying a black square surrounded by orange and green. "Looks like a hallway or shaft that goes up. I'll track it. See if you can meet me at the entrance location."

"Creto, send out a communications." Samus ordered her ship as she switched to her x-ray scope. "Standard 'hello' message. Open frequency. See if anybody's out there."

She caught sight of the shaft and its end point almost immediately.

"I can see the entry point from here." She announced, turning off her scope and hopping down. "Lara head for mid-section one level up on the sun-facing side."

"Copy that." Lara replied.

The three met at the intended destination, Joanna arriving last, pulling herself up with a grunt. They found themselves staring at a blank slab of metallic rock. Two Chozo statues of the same material stood on either side, perched on blocks, their beaks open in silent threatening of some unseen enemy.

"It's right on the other side of this-" Joanna began.

She was interrupted by Samus raising her cannon and stating, "Stand back."

The end of the barrel separated and spread as Samus aimed it at the wall.

"No, don't!" Lara called out.

Abruptly, she was pulled backwards as a projectile shot out of Samus' cannon and impacted the wall. The projectile exploded and the wall crumbled to rubble, surrounding the three in a cloud of dust. Lara watched in amazement and shock as the dust rolled over her form but never actually touched her, as though she were behind a polygonal wall of glass. It was then she realized that it was Joanna that had grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Coming to herself, Lara jerked her arm free and stepped up to Samus, yelling at her mere inches from her helmet.

"Are you mad?" she yelled. "You could have blown us all to smithereens!"

Samus turned to her, calm as ever. "I said, 'stand back.'"

"Oh!" Lara yelled, obviously not pacified. "Well that makes it all jolly well good then, doesn't it? What about the wall? You could have destroyed some important clues or a trap could have triggered! Not to mention the complete disregard for the Chozo! Haven't you any sense of tact? Or do you just go around blowing everything up all the time?"

Lara ceased her ranting, too angry to think of anything else to say, and just stared at Samus, breathing heavily. The hardened bounty hunter stared back at Lara through the green of her visor. Her face was unreadable, but Lara's words had cut deeper than she knew. She stared at the enraged treasure hunter. Some of her brown hair had come loose from her braid and had fallen disheveled over her face.

"You're right." Samus said finally in her same, calm tone. "It was disrespectful. I should take much better care to preserve what is left. "

There was a tone in her voice that the others might have picked up on, had the known her better. It was deep regret mixed with forced humility. As little as Lara knew of the matter, she was still right.

"Well, I'm glad you see that." Lara replied in a calmer tone, though still highly irritated. She then began to hastily fix her hair as she continued. "Sorry I got all hot. I just can't…never mind. Let's just get moving."

Lara then proceeded over the rubble and into the dark entryway. Joanna followed, giving Samus a look displayed her thoughts of Lara's reaction being rather extreme. Samus followed after, Lara's words still resounding in her soul.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Is it just me or does anyone else when reading the scene of the three of them walking through the Chozo ruins, get a visual in their head of Lara as she appears in Tomb Raider standing behind Samus from Other M, and a hand holding a pistol in the lower right hand corner of the screen?


	14. Inner Chamber

XIV. Inner Chamber

The three women stepped into the dark inner chamber. The air was stale and full of dust from the collapsed wall. Sunlight shone in through the haze of dust, giving pale light to the wall of hieroglyphs that stood before them. The three looked upon the breadth of the writing and upon its intricacy, awed by the sight before them.

"If only I could time travel with this in my hands." Lara said with an awed sigh, "It's the stuff that archeologists and linguists fall in love with."

"Well maybe you can find a nice Chozo paleontologist and settle down." Joanna said, aiming a sarcastically blissful grin at Lara.

"Can you translate it?" Samus asked.

"Maybe…" Lara replied, looking at her. "…if I had a month."

"Creto, see if you can…Creto?"

Samus suddenly turned and walked out of the chamber. Lara and Jo glanced at each other and then looked to Samus. After a moment, Samus came back inside.

"I'm having trouble maintaining communication with my ship inside these walls." She stated. "It's probably the metal in the rock that's causing interference."

"Probably best we don't separate then." Jo suggested.

"Agreed." Samus replied. "I sent an image of the wall to my ship. Creto may be able to translate some of it based on what Lara's already done." Noticing Lara examining a particular spot on the wall, she asked, "Did you find something?"

Lara blew on the wall, causing a small cloud of dust to envelope her. She waved her hand, coughing as she replied.

"There's a crack in the wall here." She said. "It will probably separate if given the proper stimuli."

"Stimuli?" Jo mocked. "What, is it an experimental rabbit?"

"What would you suggest?" Samus asked.

"Let's see." Lara said as she began running her hand along the hieroglyphs. "if we find the right symbols…in the right order…ah!"

She pressed her hand against a particular symbol which subsequently receded several inches into the wall.

"Fire." She mumbled as she resumed searching the symbols. Finding another, she repeated her action and mumbled, "Light." Again she searched and found another. "Water…and…way."

Pressing a final panel, she backed up as it slid into the wall. The three held their breath. The air was still and silent. Nothing moved. No sound was heard. They stood there, pensive, not knowing what would come. After several moments of nothing happening, they began to relax a little.

"Hmmm." Lara muttered, putting a hand on her chin. "Maybe it was-"

Large spikes suddenly sprang forth from the wall, their pointed ends halting millimeters from the three women who had reacted with startled fright. Just as suddenly, the spikes receded into the wall, leaving it as they had found it. The three women stood there breathing heavily, eyes wide and limbs weak at the nearness of their deaths. Lara suddenly began laughing. Turning to the other two, she said, "Well I guess that wasn't it."

Jo gave her flabbergasted look, displaying her unbelief at Lara's light-heartedness.

"Oh, come off it." Lara stated, still smiling. "The nice thing about traps I've encountered is if you trigger them, you usually don't have time to worry about it. Now let's see. Ah! Silly of me. It was 'way', THEN 'water'.

Joanna and Samus stepped back further as Lara began pressing symbols. Pressing the last, Lara leapt backwards to join the others. Again, they stood there, waiting.

No spikes shot out, but neither did anything else happen.

"Well?" Jo said rather pensively. "Now what? I'm not going to stand here all day and wait to be skewered by a spike or something worse."

"We must be missing something." Lara replied. "Let's see…"

Her mind began working back over the lore Samus had quoted.

"Samus, how well do you know the Chozo language?" she said at last.

"Fluently." Samus replied.

"Can you spot the Chozo symbol for time on this wall?"

"I could, if it was here. But I've scanned this entire wall, and it's not anywhere on it."

"Blast." Lara muttered, crossing her arms.

"What about that symbol?" Jo asked, gesturing vaguely at the center with her gun.

"What symbol?" Lara asked, trying to see what Jo was pointing out.

Jo pointed a finger at a symbol set dead center in the wall.

"That one. Right there. Isn't that the same one as on the tablet?"

Lara and Samus looked and saw the familiar pose of a bird-like figure sitting in the exact center of the wall. Both felt rather dull for not having noticed it before. Tentatively, Lara approached, reached out, and pressed the symbol.

Immediately, a rumbling was heard as the symbol slid in and disappeared and the wall separated down the middle. Dust fell in piles causing clouds to form as the two sections slid into their adjacent walls. At last the rumbling ceased and the two women stood still, waiting for the dust to settle. When it did and they saw the sight before them, Jo's heart sank.

They stood before three separate tunnels, each seeming to be the exact same size as the others. And each angling off to go in separate directions.

"Wonderful." Jo muttered. "Why can't I just keep my big mouth shut?"

"Well, the riddle said to follow the narrow way," Lara offered. "So one of these has to-"

"They're all equal size." Samus interjected.

Lara looked at her.

"Exactly?"

"Down to the nanometer."

"Crummits."

"Alright." Joanna said with a sigh. "Let's get this over with. I'll take the one on the left."

"If we split up, our communication will be cut off." Samus warned as Jo walked over to the left passageway. "We'll be on our own."

"I'm always on my own." Jo said, coldly, checking her clip. "See you in a bit."

She then switched to her nightvision lenses and disappeared into the passage.

"Joanna, wait." Samus called out, moving to stand in the doorway Joanna had entered.

"What?" Jo asked, half-turning to look over her shoulder.

"You may encounter some strange doorways that are primary in color, and semi-spherical in shape. Blue will only open with an energy blast. Red must be opened with a concussive blast. Green needs a severe concussive blast. And yellow will need an explosion of tremendous force. I wouldn't recommend trying that one."

Joanna stood silent a moment, a thought pricking her mind.

"What happens if I encounter a door with no color?" she asked.

"Then get ready for a fight." Samus replied.

Jo nodded.

"Right." She said. "Thanks for the heads-up."

The young agent then continued on into the dark tunnel.

Samus walked back over to the tunnel on the right.

"You get all that?" she asked as she passed Lara.

"Sounds like a jolly good time." Lara replied.

Samus stopped at the doorway and turned to face her.

"You aren't the least bit afraid are you?" she asked.

"Are you kidding?" Lara replied, pulling a flashlight from her backpack, "This is what I live for."

She then flashed Samus a smile, clicked on her flashlight, and headed into the middle passage. Samus lingered a moment, wondering at the difference between the two ladies, and wondering greater how she came to be paired with them. Shaking away the thought, she turned to look into the dark passage before her. So familiar was this scene, so frightening was this same first step.

"No objections, Adam." She muttered.

Her visor then flashed to solid green and she disappeared into the passage.

Author's note: Sorry this chapter is so short. The next one's going to be rather long and this was a good stopping point. May be a little longer before I get the next one posted due to its expected length as well. Thanks for all those who are hanging with this one. Much appreciated.


	15. Crossovers

XV. Crossovers

Joanna repeated in her mind Samus' instructions as the voices from the inner chamber faded from her hearing. The corridor stretched endlessly before her beyond the range of her lenses. Soon the only sound she heard was her footfalls on the metallic-stone floor. Their sound echoed around her, seemingly amplified by the surrounding silence. A thought occurring to her, she stopped, reached to her belt, and opened the panel she had previously used to modify her uniform. A few taps on the display and the panel closed back up. When she again took step, she was walking in complete silence. A smirk grew on her face.

_ Score one for Carrington ingenuity._

She continued on for some ways, her paranoia slowly giving way to boredom. What she wouldn't give for an onslaught of Datadyne troops and a hail of gunfire. Just as she was beginning the question the length of the tunnel fitting logically in the interior of the fountain structure, something entered her vision directly ahead of her. The object took up the entirety of the passageway and, as she approached it, Joanna recognized it as one of the doors Samus had told her about. She stopped in front of it, looking it over. It seemed just as had been described to her: a wall of convex glass, solid in color. The only problem was, through her night-vision lenses, she couldn't quite tell what color the door was. She didn't have a flashlight as she normally didn't need one, and deactivating her lenses would be pointless.

Joanna stood there for some time, thinking logically about what her next move should be. At last, her conclusion reached, she raised her pistol and with, three quick rounds, shattered the glass door.

"So much for your methods, Sammy." She said as she approached the door and stepped through. "And so much for stealth. Guess I'll have to apologize to La-agh!"

She yelped as the floor beneath her gave way and she felt herself beginning to fall. Her free hand reached out deftly to grab hold of the ledge. But that too crumbled beneath her grip and she continued to fall.

Lara walked at a casual pace down the long corridor, shining her flashlight upon the walls, the ceiling, and the floor, eager for some symbols or hieroglyphs for her to decipher, or some hidden passageway to find. But as her search went on and her walk lengthened, she became increasingly disappointed and bored. The passageway was a blank slate. There was nothing to do, but walk.

Becoming extremely bored, she began tossing her flashlight from hand to hand, flipping it in midair as she walked. One particular time, something glinted in the corner of her eye and she stopped, aiming her flashlight down the corridor where she thought she had seen something. Off in the distance, something caught the light from her flashlight and sent it back. Lara quickly walked further down, keeping her light on the object, which grew as she approached. When she at last reached it, she stared at it, dumbfounded.

The corridor had abruptly ended at a wall. But it was the large object that sat in front of the wall, as large as the corridor itself, that befuddled her. Standing before her, reflecting back the light of her flashlight, was the aluminum frame of a freight elevator. The object was plainly of human construction. In fact, Lara could tell it was one of those few portable models specifically manufactured to be carried and assembled on-sight. They were often used on archeological digs where the building structure required for an industry standard freight elevator was not available.

Leaning into the elevator, Lara shined her flashlight upwards and noted the wide shaft that continued up directly overhead. Stepping inside, she looked at the control panel, noting the name printed in plain English and recognizing it as from a manufacturer in England – Derbyshire, specifically.

_ Well,_ she though to herself. _No place to go from here but up._

Reaching out, she pressed the button marked by an "up" arrow. Bright lights suddenly lit up the hollow chamber. The sound of a hydraulic engine powering up filled the shaft. With a lurch, the elevator began to move up the wide shaft. Lara switched off her flashlight and tucked it away in her pack. A thought occurring to her, she looked back at the name on the control panel. Someone had put this elevator here. That meant there was someone waiting on the other end. Lara adjusted her gloves, lowered her sunglasses, and checked the clips on her pistols. She then moved to rest her hand on the control panel, one finger on the stop button. Having prepared herself as best she could, she stood there staring up the shaft, patiently waiting as the elevator took her ever closer to its destination.

Only a short time passed, and she could already see a ledge coming closer above her. She could see as well some ambient lighting coming from it. No doubt there was someone waiting at the top. She waited until she was within arms-length, hit the stop button and pressed herself against the ledge wall. Just as she suspected, she heard the sound of footsteps on stone floor.

"What's the matter, Reese?" a voice called as a figure stepped onto the ledge. "That cheap piece of junk get stuck agai-"

On the word "stuck", Lara jumped up and simultaneously grabbed the figure's ankles and planted her feet on the wall. She heard a gasp and, "There's someone here!" as she pulled with all her might. The man fell on his back and Lara heard the sound of automatic fire as she pulled the man right off the ledge. The man flipped forward as he fell, smashing face on the control panel. Lara released her grip as soon as she had pulled him from the ledge. As she fell, she continued her motion into a tuck, flipping and landing on her feet. Her hands went immediately to her guns and she turned, drawing them and aiming them squarely at her opponent who now lay on the floor of the elevator with his hands covering his nose. Blood was trickling forth from underneath his hands and he was grunting in pain. What looked like a laptop had fallen on the floor beside him. Lara quickly surmised his gun must still be up on the ledge.

_ That'll be bad news if anyone comes looking for trouble. Better get this over quick._

"Sorry about the nose, chap." She said. "But I couldn't afford for you to have the upper-hand. Why don't you tell me who you are and what you're doing here?"

The moment Samus cleared the doorway, two enormous stone slabs slid down, sealing her inside a narrow section of the corridor. This was nothing new, and Samus was immediately ready to implement any one of ten different strategies to face what was coming. But what came was not what she expected. Floor, ceiling, and every wall porcupined forth hundreds of short, metallic cylinders. In a fraction of a second, Samus picked her strategy and mentally commanded her cannon to switch to missile-fire. She aimed at the wall, an action that also took no time. So well-trained and experienced was she, that she could not be completely caught off-guard by any trap laid by a sentient being. But the ones who had built this place were not just any sentient beings. They were the Chozo.

Before she could complete the command to fire, a storm of electrical energy filled the room. Electrical current ran from cylinder to cylinder, reaching right through Samus' suit and through Samus herself. The hardened bounty-hunter would have screamed, but all her efforts were aimed at keeping her body from convulsing and staying conscious long enough to switch to her grapple beam. Her suit sparked and faded. Her eyes were shut tight, her teeth were gritted. She struggled to hold on to her suit's solid form and control her thoughts enough to issue a single command.

_ Fire._

Electric wave met electromagnetic wave. Electric feedback of tremendous power instantly shot into every cylinder. A barrage of explosions filled the chamber, first knocking her senseless, and then sending her crashing through one of the solid, stone walls that surrounded her. The momentum was such that she flew several hundred feet and landed with a painful, uncontrolled roll on hard, metallic stone. At last her body, beatn and electrocuted came to a rest in a heap.

Pain rippled through her body. Her mind was fading. She needed to contact the others. She needed her chamber. She moved her mouth to call out, yet no words came. The feel of cold stone was against her skin. She held on desperately to consciousness. It took all she had to remain awake and aware.

_Aware? Aware of what? Where am I? What happened?_

Her mind was garbled, her memories seemingly like vague dreams, her immediate memories seeming to have vanished altogether. She was surrounded by darkness. Her body refused to respond. Her head hurt like nothing else, her brain was scrambled and she felt sick. She seemed to be in that state for an eternity, unable to move, barely able to think groggy thoughts of where she was and what had happened.

Time passed, how much or little, she could not tell. She seemed to be in limbo and began to dread more and more the possibility of such a fate when footsteps, loud and echoing entered her ears, the pitch-blackness changed to an ambient lighting. Numbly, for she did not feel the action in her muscles, she raised her head to see Lara and Joanna standing over her. Samus reached out an arm, attempting in vain to call out for help. The two simply stood there, staring at her unsympathetically. Jo's hands were on her hips. Lara's arms were crossed. Why weren't they helping her? They couldn't leave her to die!

_ Why are you just standing there?_ Her garbled mind called out in anger. _Help me! What sort of friends are you?_

Though the thought was strange as it passed through her mind, she nonetheless believed it to be true. She was far too distraught with anger and fear to care, however, feelings which grew as the two continued to stare down at her in silence. At last, Joanna's mouth opened to speak, but the voice was not hers. It was male and much deeper.

"Where in the world did this chick come from?"

Somehow, Samus was able to comprehend the inconsistency and realize that these were not the women she had been traveling with.

"Got me." Replied Lara in an equally strange voice. "Better take her with us, though. The boss will want to see her."

Samus felt her body being lifted and slowly drug along the floor. Not quite remembering what had happened or understanding all that was happening now, Samus nevertheless understood one thing: She was in the hands of captors.

The thought seemed to spark in her mind a survival instinct and a refusal to give up. It jump-started her memories. She remembered the chamber of electricity and the resulting explosion. She knew she was weak, helpless. She needed to heal. She steeled her mind, searching for an answer within her garbled memories. At last her thoughts settled on an ancient Chozo technique that would allow her body to rest and heal, whilst restoring her mind and its connection to her muscles. Delving her thoughts into the technique, her environment faded back to darkness as she withdrew into herself.

She felt her heart beating.

It was the first sign of progress. She would be fully recovered within an hour's time.

Joanna groaned. She had slid hundreds of feet down a narrow shaft. The walls were sheer and somehow covered in a material so sand-like, she couldn't even get a grip. After sliding for what seemed like an eternity, the shaft ended, depositing her hard onto the stone floor of a large, open chamber. It hurt like all get out and she groaned again as she attempted to force herself to her feet. Slowly, she managed and looked around at where she was. Her night-vision revealed a large chamber extending beyond the range of her lenses in both directions. Strange creatures of which Jo couldn't make heads or tails, littered the area. They bounced along the ground, flew through the air, crawled on walls, and even ran circuits around blocks in strangely logical patterns. She felt like she was in an alien wild-life reservation...underground.

_ Of all the places I'd planned to be today..._

Shaking her head, she looked up to the hole she'd fallen through. It was nearly twenty feet up.

_ No point of going back the way I came. No possibility of it anyway._

Blowing some air up which ruffled her bangs, she checked her equipment, which seemed to be all there and intact, picked up her gun, which she had dropped when she fell, and began walking. Most of the creatures of the cavern seemed to pay her no heed. Rather, they stuck to their own doings and patterns, completely oblivious to her presence, though a few followed her with cautioned interest. She had to stop a few times to shoo them away. They didn't retreat very far and always resumed their activity when she continued on. Eventually, she went far enough that her vision revealed a wall coming up before her. Jo stopped short. The wall was made of the same square blocks as the rest of the cavern. She blew out some more air in frustration and was about to turn away when the little creatures that had been following her (which resembled some strange breed of ostrich) ran in front of her, towards the wall. Jo first looked behind her, and when she saw nothing coming, she went forward and noticed the meta-ostriches (for that is what she decided they were) were pecking at a brick at the base of the wall. The brick seemed to be chipping away rather easily. Jo knelt down and shooed away the little creatures and then began pounding on the brick with the butt of her gun. The rocky material crumbled away revealing what appeared to be a glass block. Taking a wide swing with both hands, Jo swung the butt of her pistol and shattered the glass. Several spherical objects tumbled out of the hole. Gingerly, she picked the objects from among the shards of glass, making sure to get any that were still in the hole. Setting them aside, she picked one up and examined it.

The object was a spherical in shape with a ridged band encircling it. She fiddled with it a moment and found the band could be rotated. It went so far and then clicked into position, moving no further. Immediately, it began to pulse and Jo quickly clicked it back. The pulsing stopped and Jo breathed out a heavy breath. This was either a bomb or a beacon. Either way, Jo didn't care to find out by trial and error. She'd let Samus have a look at it. This was _her _department anyway.

The band took some force to engage and so she decided it was safe to carry. As she gathered the objects and put them in her belt, she looked back at the hole and found the little meta-ostriches were hungrily eating the glass shards. Jo stared at them in surprise. Once they had finished their meal, they chirped happily and scuttled into the hole. Jo peered in and saw them running down a lengthy shaft. The last in the group stopped and turned back to her. It chirped, seemingly beckoning to her and then continued on. After a short distance, the little creature repeated the action, Jo decided she had best follow. The shaft was large enough for her to fit...if she crawled.

_ Oh, well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I suppose._

She found as she squeezed through the small opening, that her mood had turned a little lighter and she almost didn't mind crawling into a hole in a cave on an alien planet being let by baby meta-ostriches...almost.

Lara tapped a few keys on the keyboard of the open laptop on her lap. She sat with her hand on her chin, staring at the large screen in front of her. It was a remarkable model, made of some kind of flexible material that allowed it to fold in half without damaging the screen. Despite the level of technology inherent in its design, however, Lara was frustrated. The screen before her demanded a password for further access and she'd had no luck cracking it. She tried another combination with no success and growled in her throat. This was always Zip's sort of thing, not hers. Her body wobbled as her seat shifted underneath her. She looked down to the bound and gagged man lying beneath her. He noticed her gaze and looked up.

"Y'know, this could be a lot easier on you if you were to just give your password or a little information."

The man simply gave an angered mumble and gave a brief jerk of a struggle.

"There's really no point in trying to get free." Lara told him. "I _do_ know how to tie a rope pretty effectively. Why don't you stop all this nonsense and tell me what I need to know?"

The man let out a long breath and turned his head away.

"Fine." Lara said, standing up and closing the laptop. "Have it your way. Hope you like peeing on yourself. I'm sure it must have been a while since the last time you went."

Lara folded the laptop in half and stuffed it in her backpack, adding, "You don't mind if I borrow this do you? Of course you don't. There's a good chap."

A sound drew their attention to the passageway still a few feet above them. After strangely finding no gun where her captive had been standing, Lara had gone a little ways down and laid a trap for anyone that might come along. The sound she heard told her it had been sprung and someone was caught in it.

_ Just in case, though._

Lara drew her guns and climbed up onto the ledge.

Alec held his head. He'd smacked it when...what had happened? He looked around and realized he was swinging...upside-down. His hands groped for his radio as he grunted in pain. Finding it, he let his body hang back limp as he brought the radio to his mouth.

"Central- oh!" he grunted at the pain as he spoke in slow words. "This is Twelve. We have an intrud-"

"I'll take that."

A feminine hand reached around and pulled the radio from his hand. Alec found himself being spun around to find a woman he did not recognize staring back at him. His head felt strange as he tried to place her.

"Who..." he managed. His head was starting to hurt more.

"That's exactly the question I wanted to ask you." Lara told him. "That, and who you're working for."

"Oh...please cut me down."

Lara pulled a hunting knife and held it up.

"Whenever you're ready."

"...bite me...OH!"

Alec put a hand to his head as a pain shot through it. Lara tsk'ed.

"Now that wasn't very good manners." She said as she cut the strap holding his machine gun. "You'd better think of something better to say before all the blood finishes rushing to your head and you wind up a babbling idiot. Not that there will be much difference."

Alec just replied with another, "oh" while Lara looked over the gun she held in her hands. Another technologically advanced model. Something was nagging her about all this technology, like she was missing something. The gun appeared to be a fully automatic assault rifle of some sort. Seeing an insignia on the clip, Lara held it closer. It was the same symbol on both men's uniforms: a right triangle sitting on a point. The line connecting that point and the right angle ran vertically upwards, double the length of the side. Immediately to the right was an equilateral triangle also sitting on a point, it's left side made up of the overly-long side of the right triangle. Lara adjusted the gun in the light of the man's dropped flashlight and suddenly saw the symbol differently.

"'dD'" she read. Her eyes went wide as a revelation hit her and she looked again to the insignia on the man's uniform. Her mind went back to her first encounter with Joanna and it all connected as a familiar sound entered her ears.

Lara jumped back as a spray of bullets ricocheted off the wall. A voice came from a hallway previously hidden in shadow.

"Get her!"

"I wouldn't if I were you, chaps!" Lara shouted from around the corner. "Your friend is literally hanging by a thread directly in your line of fire. So, unless you want-"

Another hail of bullets silenced her and forced her to press herself against the wall adjacent to the hallway. The bullets stopped and Lara stood horrified at the ruthless killing of her captive by his own men.

_These guys are serious._ She thought to herself. Checking the gun, she thought, _High technology or no, a gun is a gun. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out._

Indeed it wasn't. There were a couple extra buttons she didn't recognize, but they weren't needed anyway. All she needed was the barrel and the trigger. Those she found easily.

_Alright, chaps. This is the way you want to do things? _She thought as she backed up a few paces. _I'll oblige._

She then charged forward and sprang into a dive. As she crossed the threshold, she aimed and opened fire.

The first sign of consciousness that came to Samus was the sound of rumblings in her ears. As she slowly came back from her comatose-like state, the rumblings changed. They morphed into muffled voices, which in turn became clearer as she felt her other senses beginning to return. She felt her eyelids and the temptation to open them. She felt strength in her limbs and the desire to move. Nevertheless, she held still, waiting to hear as much as she could before she was forced to reveal her state.

"chamber." Was the first word she heard. The voice was young, probably mid-to-late-thirties. As she continued to listen and recover, she heard a thick accent within the words.

"These symbols will no doubt lead us." The voice continued. "But we must decipher them in order to follow them in the proper order."

"What does it matter?" said another, deeper voice. "Just try different combinations until you find the right one."

"Silence!" shouted the other. "You know nothing of ancient civilizations! The wrong order or the wrong symbol could spring a trap, or lead us into a passage that will get us hopelessly lost. These things MUST be handled delicately."

"Delicate handling takes too much time, Doctor. We want results."

"Then you will die in your pursuits! And your precious federation will have nothing to show for itself but an embarrassing coalition and conglomeration of dead men! And that goes for your alien friends as well! Restrain yourself! And let me do my work!"

"Hey, Boss." A third voice spoke. "What do you want us to do with this chick? I'm tired of carrying her."

"Leave her alone, I told you." The first voice responded. "You will carry her as long as I-"

"Kill her." The second voice cut in.

"I will not have blood on my hands, Colonel!" said the first voice. "You cannot-"

"Do not presume to tell me what I can and cannot do." The second voice said rather forcefully. "This woman is a threat to all our work and a wanted criminal."

_Criminal?_

"It is completely within my jurisdiction and irrelevant to our agreement to do with her as I see fit. She is my concern, doctor, not yours. But if you remain insistent on it, you can join her."

The first voice was silent. A pair of feet shuffled.

"Kill her." The second voice commanded.

At this, Samus opened her eyes.

In quick action, she moved her hands beneath her and swung her legs around, sweeping the feet that she saw when she opened her eyes. As she swung around, her eyes surveyed her surroundings. Five men stood around, not yet able to react to her quick movements. Most where in clothing reflective of Lara's time period. But two figures stood out in her mind. One was dressed in a cream-colored suit that seemed to Samus as a figure she had seen somewhere recently. The other wore the military uniform of a Galactic Federation soldier.

As her legs contacted the feet of her would-be executioner, she formulated her strategy. Pushing off the ground, she vaulted herself sideways and caught the falling man, her arms quickly enfolding him, one going for his pistol, the other wrapping around his neck. The man impacted Samus into the hard, metallic-stone floor. She felt the impact, but suffered little, knowing she had only milliseconds. She took aim with the pistol, and forced the man's finger onto the trigger. The weapon kicked unexpectedly, sending a tremor up Samus' arm as a spray of bullets rocketed out of the gun. Before her first target hit the ground, Samus was already swiveling her aim to her second target, sending a hailstorm of gunfire across the chamber and into the second man. The man in the suit and the Galactic Federation Colonel ducked and fled at the hail of gunfire. The colonel ran down an adjacent corridor. The man in the suit hit a panel on the wall and fled through a closing doorway. As the doorway closed, the man turned back. Samus got the briefest of glimpses at a face filled with bitter anger. Samus' eyes narrowed as she freeze-framed the image in her head. It _was_ him, but younger.

_A descendant?_

She replayed the image again. The look was the same. It was him. As Samus tried to wrap her mind around the mystery of the matter, she felt the man on top of her go limp. Shoving him off her, she took his gun and stood up. She examined the gun a moment. An archaic piece of weaponry, but she was eventually able to figure out the clip, rounds, and operation of the whole thing. She then looked down the corridor she had seen the colonel run down. It was completely dark only a few feet from the chamber in which she stood. Were her suit functional, she would have immediately given chase. But then again, if her suit were functional, he wouldn't have gotten away in the first place.

_If only I'd seen his face…_

Forcing her attention away, Samus moved to the bodies of the men she killed. Taking two more clips off them, she searched their belongings. Inside the packs on their backs were days' worth of rations, archaic light sticks (electrical and chemical), and several other strange objects she did not recognize. Finally resigning herself to take a little of everything, Samus emptied out one of the packs and re-packed it with just that as well as the extra clips. She then put the pack on and stood to face the wall where the familiar man had pressed the panel.

Ancient Chozo writing covered the wall. It didn't take someone with Samus' knowledge long to read the hieroglyphs and decipher the messages therein.

_You have survived, as we always knew you would. You have not forgotten even after these long years. I know your heart breaks whenever you look upon what remains. But the years can be reversed, the evils that befell our race can be rescinded, and you can be restored to that for which your heart so greatly longs. To find it, you must pass through the maze to the heart of this fountain. Beware. Your enemies will also be fervently seeking this treasure. Treasure well the friendships you have made. They will be invaluable. Forgive easily, remembering that all of us fall short of perfection. Most of all, do not put your desire above the truth…daughter Samus._

Samus stood there, staring at the writing, doing everything in her power to keep her emotions in check. Her heart broke for her extinct people. She yearned for some deeper interaction with them, as she had done so many times in her youth, to sit at the feet of Old Bird and learn from his wisdom of years, as well as to hear of his heart from his aged voice lovingly call her, "Daughter Samus."

Her emotions became too strong at the thought and she leaned her head against the wall, her hand feeling the raised surfaces of the hieroglyphs as her cheeks felt trickles of water flowing over them. She desired there to be something more. She desired to grab hold of the stones pull them down and somehow restore the people which she had lost to time and circumstance. But there was nothing. There was only the writing and the faint glimmer of hope it held.

…_the years can be reversed, the evils that befell our race can be rescinded, and you can be restored to that for which your heart so greatly longs…_

Perhaps there was a way. But even if there wasn't, somewhere in the heart of this complex lay a treasure of the Chozo. Such things could not fall into the hand of the space pirates, or any that would misuse it for their own gain. She still had her people to honor, and a universe to protect.

Steeling her mind, she straightened up and wrestled her emotions under control as she once again looked over the writing. The familiar man had pressed the first instance of treasure and it had sealed him behind that particular wall. Samus looked at it. He had not pressed the proper panel to lead him into the maze. But correct path or not, a man of ill intent let loose in a Chozo ruin was still a dangerous matter. Samus thought over her options. Her power suit was disabled. She possibly had some explosives picked off the men she killed, but there was no way to tell, and no knowledge of how to use them even if she could recognize them. She would simply have to follow the path Old Bird had laid out for her.

Turning back to the wall, she pressed the panels in the correct order, a phrase Old Bird had often spoken in instructing her.

d_aughter_

_ Samus_

_ desire_

_ truth_

The panels immediately popped back into place. Metallic stone ground against metallic stone as the wall behind Samus slid open to reveal another passage. Turning, Samus stepped inside. Two Chozo statues sat on either side just inside the opening. Samus froze as their eyes lit up with a purple hue. The color was indicative of their scanning nature. These were not guardians. Understanding their purpose, Samus stood still and allowed them to scan and identify her Chozo DNA. At last their scans ceased, the purple glow of their eyes faded and the walls began to slide back into place.

A sensation of being watched came over Samus and she turned and looked back into the darkened passageway down which the Galactic Federation Colonel had fled. Her eyes narrowed as she searched the darkness. But she saw nothing. At last, the walls slammed shut, sealing her inside the maze. She stood staring at the wall a moment, eventually coming to the same conclusion as before. She rested in the fact that even if he figured out the sequence, he would still have to deal with the Chozirim. Turning away, she set her mind to the task ahead and headed down the corridor.


	16. Crossovers part 2

XVI. Crossovers. Part II

_ One, two, three. One, two, three, four. One, two, three…_

Samus repeated the sequence in her mind, burning it into her memory, her eyes closed in concentration as she hung from a metallic rod forty feet off the ground. The maze had taken some time to navigate. Backtracking and item collection she was used to. But deciphering hieroglyphs, figuring out puzzles, and understanding number sequence patterns made this maze much more complicated than any Chozo ruins or Space Pirate stronghold she had ever encountered. Whatever was at the center must be one of the Chozo's most powerful secrets.

She had several times, and from several angles, passed by a tall tube of metallic-stone, much like a circular chimney, protruding from a deep pit in the floor. Each time she lit a torch, further lighting the area around it, and each time her access to its opening had been blocked, though at each crossing there were clues about its access and the dangers that lay between. As she continually encountered it and by the clues she had found, she knew it was where the path led, if one followed it properly. She was certain she had. The chozean inscriptions and clues, though coded, were unmistakable. This was the path Old Bird intended her to follow. Now she was at the end and there was only one way to go: down.

When she realized this, and seen the handholds on the wall leading up to the rod, and only the encoded number sequence inscribed in the wall, she sat down and pulled out of the pack she had taken, an archaic writing implement and blank-paged book into which she had sketched all the clues, writings, and inscriptions she had found. She had taken at least an hour or more sorting and arranging them, matching them to the number sequence as she did so. When she finally completed the work and seen the pattern, she had stood up, taken the pack along with the notebook and most of the items, and burned them with a torch. Taking only a simple hunting knife and a coil a rope which she wrapped tightly around her waist, Samus had tucked its sheathed form into a fold in her zero suit, stretched, and climbed up the wall to the rod.

Now as she hung there, her eyes closed as she repeated the sequence in her mind, she felt a slight wind. She opened her eyes.

Another bar, higher up lay only a few feet away. Between her and it, a blade the size of a chozirim statue sped past, moving from a slot in the right wall, to a slot in the left and back again with deadly swiftness. It was unlike the Chozo to use such archaic weaponry. But she understood its purpose.

Beyond the second bar, an electrical wave running from wall to wall appeared and then moved swiftly downward where it would disappear only to reappear a moment later in its starting location, repeating the cycle. Below where it stopped, Samus could see archaic blades, electrical pulses, chozean devices sticking out of walls, bars, blocks, and a host of obstacles all between her and the opening of the shaft. The sequence she had deciphered would give her the timing she needed to make it past everything and land her squarely in the opening…if she did it right.

Her moves had to be precise. Her timing had to be perfect.

She closed her eyes and repeated the sequence in her mind as she began to swing her body.

Forward. _One, two, three._

Back. _One, two, three, four._

Forward. _One, two, three…_

Back. _One, two, three, four._

She felt her body swing forward. She felt the breeze blow past her. Her body reached the apex of its swing and she released. She flipped, reached out her arms, and gripped the metal bar in front of her. Her body swung forward as the breeze blew past just behind her. _One, two, three_. She released, throwing her body forward into open air. Flipping, she heard the electrical spark and reached out a fist. The electromagnetic wave of the grapple beam caught the material of her Zero Suit and her body was suddenly jerked downward at tremendous speed.

She held her body taught and straight as an arrow, feeling the wind as various objects rushed past her some millimeters from her as she continued the sequence in mind. _One, two, three, , two, three. _The spark sounded again and she felt the wave release her. As her body continued to fall, she kept her count going. _One, two…_ she twisted, and tucked into a ball. Something rushed past her on all sides. _…three…_ she began to turn her body …_. four… _as she turned, she straightened, her body momentarily in a horizontal position. She felt the wind shift as two large objects passed just above and below her. O_ne, two…_ She went back into a ball momentarily to gain more spin _…three._ Then straightened again so that she was facing downward as four more objects blew past her in sequence. She continued this, keeping her count as she spun, tucked, straightened, twisted, and turned, all as she continued to fall through the silence of the chamber, her body narrowly missing the many deadly objects and traps that whooshed passed her. She was almost there. One last test.

_One, two, three, four, NOW!_ Her body in an upright position, Samus opened her eyes, reached over her head, locking her hands together, and tilted her head to one side. A swinging axe-head slipped perfectly into the gap of her arms, the haft catching her hands, halting her downward progress and yanking her painfully backwards. The axe swung her to a wall, where she swung her feet up behind her to contact a particular stone which slid into the wall as she did so. She immediately released her grip on the axe, pushed off the wall and launched herself forward. Her forward momentum began to turn downward, and she flipped so that she was falling feet first. As she completed the motion, a large, block slid out of the wall beneath her. She landed on it and gripped the handholds on its sides just as it cleared the wall. Her hand nearly slipped on her initial grip, but she was able to recover and hunch down, holding fast to the quickly falling stone.

Thousands of archaic, but razor-sharp knives began shooting out of the walls on all sides. Such was the timing that all either bounced harmlessly off the metallic-stone block, or passed millimeters over Samus', hunkered head. _One, two, three, four._ Keeping the sequence going, Samus leaned back and pulled on the block until she had turned ninety degrees. She then pushed off, sending the block into a diagonal descent as she twisted and flipped so that she slid perfectly into the stone shaft feet-first, her arms over her head. The shaft was just wide enough to accommodate her size with the rope around her waist and she held her pencil stance for one more count until the walls gave way, she caught a metal bar, swung, flipped once, and landed perfectly, one knee and one hand down upon the hard, metallic-stone floor. Calmly, though her heart beat madly, she stood, finding herself in complete darkness.

Fire crackled and snapped as the alien vegetation burned within its strange, purple flames. Above the small blaze, a creature unknown to Joanna's eyes lay skewered on a spit, slowly roasting. Jo sniffed the air.

"Almost done." she said. "Still smells odd, though. Though probably not you four, I imagine."

She looked up at the four creatures standing on the other side of the fire. It had been days. The narrow shaft she had crawled into had opened up into another large cavern, which had split off into two smaller passages, one of which had additionally split off into _two more_ passages, one boiling hot, the other freezing cold. That's how it had gone for nearly a week. As she had moved from cave to cave, the scenery and the wildlife changed and she had found a few other interesting devices, but otherwise, it had just been a long, lonely, boring, subterranean exploration. Lonely, that is, except for the company of the meta-ostriches.

They had stayed with her this whole time, sometimes following, sometimes leading. They seemed to know this place well and would often ward her off from a dangerous path, plant, or creature. They ate just about anything they could find and they were even good watch...ostriches. They had been quite a help to her, and she had come to trust their judgment.

She eyed each one in turn. They were nearly as tall as her now. She had been amazed to find how quickly they were growing. So much had her fondness for them grown, she found herself giving them names and even correcting them like a mother.

_Must be this place_. She mused.

One of them squawked, a sound which she knew more or less meant, "look out".

She looked to the roasting beast and quickly removed it from the flames. Pulling a hunting knife from her belt, she sliced off a large chunk for herself onto a leaf that lay on the ground next to her. She then turned to the group who stood eagerly awaiting their meal.

"Bernie." she said sternly.

One of the creatures cocked its head.

"You share with your brothers and sisters." Jo instructed.

The creature squawked and Jo tossed the roasted beast among them. The four of them proceeded to ravenously tear at their meal. Jo wrapped the leaf around her meat and took a bite as she watched her "children." One of them bumped another which squawked in objection.

"Hey, hey! No fighting." Jo called around her meal.

The group finished their meat and then scattered in different directions as they always did after a meal. Jo remained by the fire, eating her meal and letting her mind wander. After finishing, she activated her teleprompter and set an alarm for one hour. She disliked staying in one place too long and wouldn't resign herself to a full night's sleep until the end of the "day". Deactivating her device, she lay down and stared off into the flames. Her mind contemplated how long she'd been there, her time with Samus and Lara already seeming so far off, her life beyond that seeming like a dream. Sadness crept over her as she pondered if she would ever again see the sunlight or hear the warm tone of Daniel Carrington's voice. Her mind was tired. Her eyelids were heavy. She closed them, and instantly fell asleep.

"Central, this is Four. All clear."

No sooner had the trooper given his status then he felt a blow to the back of the head and collapsed unconscious on the ground. Lara stood behind him, holding a pistol in a backwards grip. For the last twenty minutes, she had encountered soldier after soldier. After the first few didn't talk, she realized the futility of such efforts and resigned to just taking them out. Still, she did not like having to engage again and again in the killing of other people, so she did her best to rely on stealth and be satisfied with knocking them unconscious whenever she could. It was fortunate she kept the radio she had taken off of her second captive. There was some kind of device attached to it that looked rather alien to her eyes. She surmised it was responsible for boosting the signal enough to allow it to pass through the interference of the walls. It enabled her to listen in to their conversations and get an idea of how many soldiers she was facing and even helped her with some of their locations. If nothing else, she was grateful for the fact that it helped her to avoid unnecessary killing.

Unfortunately, she was forced to pull the trigger on one soldier that caught her by surprise. That brought a slew of others after her. One good thing about it, though, she had acquired quite an arsenal. She had even discovered that each weapon she picked up had a secondary function, which she found very handy indeed. But the height of her discovery was that these soldiers, of whom she was now in no doubt to their identity, were attempting to unlock something holding an immense power source near the heart of the labyrinth.

Lara laughed silently at the notion as she replaced her pistol and stripped the unconscious man of his weapons. This place was about as much of a labyrinth as an air duct system in a three-bedroom bungalow. She'd been in museums that were more confusing than this place.

Making haste, Lara took up an assault rifle in her hands and proceeded down the corridor. The man had identified himself as "four". She had to be close to "central". She turned a corner. Another dark hallway. This one was warmer than the rest. Light shone into it from a doorway further down. Voices could be heard, distant, echoing, and unclear. Quietly, she crept down the corridor. As she drew closer, the voices became clearer and she quieted her movements all the more that she might hear every word she could.

"…twelve units." A voice said. "There's no telling how many of our own products we could power with it."

"Do not be concerned with your own units." Said another voice. Its dark tone and inhuman sound sent shivers down Lara's spine. "Whatever you receive when we are finished with it will be more than sufficient."

At this Lara arrived at the doorway. Peaking an eye around the corner gave her a good view of what was in there. Two, bright, battery-powered floodlights stood lighting up the chamber and shedding light on two figures. One stood facing some structure that sat beyond the lights, some sort of statue, perhaps. The other stood facing the first figure. Lara pulled her head back and continued to listen, not wanting to be caught.

"Until we find a way to split the power from the device, neither of our peoples can use it." Said the first voice.

"As I said." Said the second. "Do not be concerned with your own units. Just be concerned about freeing it from-"

"Sir!" a third, more human-sounding voice cut in. "I'm not getting a response from any of our units except three and two."

"It must be that intruder." The first voice responded. "What about the Skedar?"

_Skedar?_

"All of my units are in the central chamber and they report no anomalous activity." The second voice replied.

"That's good. Tell our men in the central chamber to stay alert. Join two and three and canvas the area-"

"No." the inhuman voice cut in. "Your men have failed. I will deal with this intruder myself."

A strange sound was heard like a spark of electricity and all went silent. Lara stood silent and still a moment, her body pressed against the wall as her mind reviewed how many rounds she had used in this clip and how many were left. Sweat rolled down her cheek. There was definitely a heat source emanating from this room. She held the rifle upright against her chest. She could feel her sweating hands gripping the cold steel, one hand holding the fore stock, the other wrapped around the grip, her finger resting gingerly on the trigger. Lara prepared herself, knowing there was little chance she would get away with not killing all three occupants.

_Do, die, or let the universe go to rubbish. Strap up, Croft. There's no turning back._

Lowering the barrel, Lara heard the same electrical noise and saw a dim flash of light directly in front of her where the barrel of her gun had dropped. She immediately leapt and rolled out of the way as something shot into the wall just missing her arm. She rolled and came up on her haunches, letting loose a barrage of bullets on her former position. Her eyes saw flashes of light where her bullets impacted something luminescent. Behind the strange phenomenon, she thought she saw a strange figure vanish out of sight. The luminescence stopped almost immediately after and her bullets flew freely down the corridor. The gun clicked, announcing the depletion of its ammunition. Inwardly, Lara cursed at the size of the magazine as she switched it out with a fresh one.

She again aimed her gun as she backed down the corridor. There was no sound but that of her own footsteps. Whatever had attacked her was still there somewhere, probably cloaked somehow. Blast, but she had no way to detect it! Her mind went over the devices and weapons she had acquired and something stood out. Dropping the assault rifle, she pulled out two sub-machine guns and flipped the switches to activate their secondary functions. In that moment, the electrical sound emitted from behind her and caused her to spin and duck an overhead swipe from the claw of some alien-looking beast. One look and Lara's mind recalled Joanna's description of the Skedar and she now knew what she faced as she let loose a volley of bullets. The luminescence reappeared, protecting the thing like some sort of technological shielding. Lara leapt backwards, avoiding another strike that went into the floor. Her guns pulled on her hands, preventing her from properly entering her roll and causing her to land awkwardly and painfully.

Knowing her danger, she ignored the pain and followed the pull of her weapons, firing as soon as it lessened. The luminescence appeared once again and Lara kept her fingers pressed on the triggers as the creature reappeared from its invisible state. Her bullets pounded relentlessly on the thing's shields as Lara painfully got to her feet and backed away. She knew she could not keep this up forever and there would be no time to reload. As she began to formulate her next move, her guns clicked. Her fingers released their grip as her mind worked in desperation. Then her eyes saw the last of her bullets fly past the surrounding and fading luminescence and strike the creature in its hideous beak. The creature reeled and gave a feral cry. Immediately, Lara knew her next move, dropped her guns, and reached to her backpack.

Recovering faster than Lara expected, the creature charged her in motions nearly too fast to counter. She attempted again to dodge the creature's lunge, but the monster caught her by the foot and raised her off the ground, dangling her like a caught fish and roaring an ear-piercing scream at her.

Lara wasted no time, but pulled from her backpack a strange, cylindrical grenade. She immediately popped the lever and chucked it towards the monster's open maw. A lightning-fast claw caught the projectile.

The monster, who had ceased its feral cry, looked at the grenade with a growl and then back at Lara who was…smiling? Her adversary caught a glimpse of something in her other hand and looked just in time to see Lara swipe upwards with a large machete, severing the claw that held her. The creature roared in pain. Lara dropped to the floor and rolled to her feet. Forcing her body to its physical limits, she turned, ran two steps and leapt into the doorway as an explosion ripped through the passageway.

Something woke Joanna before her alarm did. She lifted her head and blinked and for the briefest of moments, thought she heard a distant rumbling. Had the ground just been shaking? She lay there for a few moments, waiting for something else. But nothing came.

Looking around, she saw the fire had gone down to embers and her four friends were lying asleep in a clump just beyond. Her alarm went off and she pressed the button on her earpiece, canceling it. Sitting up, she stretched and prepared her mind for another day of walking, treasure-finding, and shooting various wildlife that tried to attack her. But first, human nature was calling, and she quietly slinked off to find a private spot.

Having finished, she made her way back to her campsite and proceeded to smother the remaining embers of the fire. It was fortunate that she had remembered the Moonraker Laser strapped to the wrist of her suit, lest she wouldn't have been able to start a fire and cook her food. It had also come in handy on its primary function for opening a few doors so she didn't have to keep wasting bullets.

The fire sufficiently out, she was about to turn and wake her friends when she noticed Clarabelle's head was raised up and cocked, as if she was listening for something.

"What's the matter, girl?" Jo asked her. "You hear something?"

The creature gave a squawk in response, waking the others who mimicked her actions. Slowly, they unraveled themselves, walking around in seemingly random patterns until Winston, the furthest away, squawked back at the other and they all turned and began running in his direction. Jo had learned when they ran, it usually meant danger and so she gave chase as fast as she could, pulling her pistol as she followed. Her friends were fleet-footed, though they always seemed to slacken their pace in order for her to keep up. But this time, they seemed to have forgotten that and were running so fast that Jo soon lost sight of them. Fortunately, as far as she could tell, this particular cavern only had one path. She kept up her pace, catching a glimpse here or there of Bernie bringing up the rear of the group as she turned a corner or crested a hill. At one point, the terrain leveled out and Jo got a brief glimpse of a glowing, blue object in the distance. She pushed herself to catch up, knowing what was coming.

At last she saw the cavern ended abruptly at the base of a wide, vertical shaft up ahead and she caught a glimpse of one of her friends, now flashing off-white, hunched onto the ground. Jo ran full out, but before she could get there, the creature had leapt up into the air and rocketed skyward, leaving after-images of itself in its wake. Jo arrived at the shaft just as the last of the after-images dissipated. Out of breath, she stopped and leaned over, attempting to recover. When she had caught her breath, she looked up the shaft. It was wide, likely twenty feet across, and extended beyond the range of her nightvision lenses. Joanna grumbled. This wasn't the first time they had left her like this. Giving a frustrated sigh, she shouted up the hole, "I can't _do_ that!"

She then holstered her gun and crossed her arms, waiting. A moment later, Bernie dropped back down, landing on his feet with unnatural ease for the height that he had dropped. He then ran around in a seemingly random pattern until he came up behind Jo and slid himself underneath her, putting her on his back. Jo held onto his neck as he ran back down the passage to gather speed. Jo closed her eyes, bracing herself for what was coming. This always made her sick.

She felt Bernie change direction. She felt the g-forces pull at her body and saw through her eyelids the glow of blue and then the flash of off-white. She felt herself being pressed down as Bernie leapt high into the air. And like a roller-coaster, she felt the quick easing of the pressure and the gentle bump as they arrived at the top of the shaft and landed on solid ground. Jo opened her eyes and Bernie leaned over, allowing her to slide off. Jo closed her eyes and held her stomach as she muscled down the reflex to vomit.

Bernie came alongside her, looking at her and twisting his neck so that his head was upside-down, as if the odd vantage point would give better insight into his companion's behavior. Jo felt his eyes upon her and opened her own slightly, looking sideways at him.

"Don't worry about me, Bernie." She said. "I'll be right proper in just a bit."

Bernie gave a squawk (rather loudly considering he was only inches from Joanna's face) and, satisfied that she was fine, twisted his head back and ran off ahead of her. Jo stumbled after him, her nausea quickly fading.

It wasn't long before she came to another of the strange doors. The four meta-ostriches stood in front of it, jerking their heads this way and that, as if attempting to hear something that was inaudible to the young agent. Jo deactivated her lenses, aimed her laser at the door, switched to its primary function, and fired a few bursts. The door easily withstood the blasts and Jo saw through the light of the laser pulses the obvious color before her.

_Orange. Massive force needed._ She thought as she reactivated her lenses.

She then looked again to her friends. Yes, they were her friends, even if they were just dumb, highly-intelligent, alien animals. They had been a great help to her and had gotten her out of what could have turned into some pretty nasty scrapes. The least she could do is return the favor.

"You four want to go in there?" she asked.

The four of them swiveled their heads to look at her and started squawking incessantly.

"Alright, alright." Joanna said as she attempted in vain to shut them up. "okay, fine, ENOUGH!"

They all stopped squawking and stared at her.

"I get it." She added.

Winston gave a weak mumble of a squawk and Joann rolled her eyes as she moved towards the door.

"Stand aside." She said impatiently as she waved them away.

The four shuffled away as Jo pulled from her belt one of the spheres she had found right after she had arrived in this place. It was almost inconceivable that something this small could create a force wave intense enough to open the door. But, then, nothing about this place was normal and she had no other options, besides more unknown devices.

_Six of one, half-dozen of another, I suppose._ She thought to herself as she squatted down and engaged the band.

The moment the sphere started to pulse, the four meta-ostriches went into a frenzy. In one smooth motion, Bernie knocked the object from Jo's hand, slid her onto his back and began running. Jo held on tight to his belly. She was on her stomach and facing the wrong way. Bernie was jostling her too much for her to attempt to turn around and so she had to remain riding as she was. Turning her head to look ahead of them, she felt panic shoot through her as she realized they were headed straight for the shaft.

A pop sounded off in the distance and Jo looked back to see a tremendous wave of light accelerating towards them. She felt Bernie push off the ground which promptly disappeared beneath them as they jumped the chasm. Jo tightened her grip, causing Bernie to squawk. Time seemed to stand still as the wave quickly filled the cavern, almost blinding Jo as it moved towards her and Bernie at incredible speed. Jo barely had time to duck her head down and pull it in. They were still in mid-air when she felt heat on her head. She felt her hairs begin to singe and then…

Bernie landed awkwardly with a thump and the two went tumbling onto the floor of a cavern that lay on the other side of the shaft. Painfully, Jo got to her feet and looked across the chasm. She barely caught a glimpse of the wave just as it faded out and dissipated over the shaft. She then looked over to see Bernie in a heap upon the floor. He was flailing wildly, his body resembling a pretzel. Jo rushed over and pushed him, causing him to roll. This apparently was all he needed to untangle himself and get to his feet, shaking his head like dog that had just finished scratching.

"You alright?" Jo asked.

He replied with a squawk and then began pecking at the singed feathers of his rear.

"Alright, good. Well, care to see if the door is still intact?"


	17. Chozirim

XVII. Chozirim

Samus stood still and calm in the darkness, listening to her heartbeat. Its rapid beat thumped in her ears. She stood quiet and still at once listening to the darkness that surrounded her and calming her own heartbeat, which slowed and lessened in intensity, its thump fading from her ears and chest to an indiscernible level. There was no sound from the darkness. It was as the rest of this place: a tomb. Then, one by one, orbs on either side of the room began to glow with a soft luminescence and Samus saw before her a long, chamber at one end of which she stood. At the other end, though distant, she could clearly make out the stone form of a Chozo statue. She found to her bewilderment, however, that it was not in the usual sitting posture, symbolizing truth, but stood, staring upwards, arms reaching high above its head. Samus of course recognized the posture, but was baffled, as she had never seen any statue made to symbolize anything other than "truth"- the Chozo's most revered and highly-sought after prize.

Between her and the statue were two rows of pillars running the length of the chamber. They stood as silent sentinels in a royal hall as though ushering Samus towards the throne of a king in whose place stood the bizarre statue. At a careful pace, Samus began walking towards the statue, her path taking her between the two rows which stood at an equal distance of five feet from either side of her. As she walked she noted the hieroglyphs crafted into the stone of the pillars. Each pillar held a single hieroglyph depicting a single word. The message was almost as baffling as the statue. But as the soft padding of her feet against the stone floor filled her ears and her approach to the statue grew, the message became clearer until at last she stood before the statue and pieced the message together in her mind, the statue's intent becoming clear.

_To gain the prize, all must be sacrificed. To know the truth, all must be forsaken. To be restored, blood must be spilled. To attain life, the blood must be pure. For life is in the blood._

Samus stared up at the statue, its form towering above her.

_Life._

She did not know why the Chozo had chosen these methods- these symbols- but she would not deny their truth. Whatever was at the center of this fountain, was more powerful- and more dangerous- than any Chozo treasure she had ever come across. She noted the beak of the statue, readily open to feast upon something unseen. The clawed hands holding fragments of a sphere. Behind the statue, a familiar half-dome of gray face her direction. Samus rehearsed the message.

_ To gain the prize_- the treasure at the center of this fountain.

_ To know the truth _- the truth of what was happening and perhaps what had happened to her people, regardless, the greatest ideal which she had always been taught to pursue.

_ To be restored_- The restoration of her people, the Chozo.

Was such a thing possible? She shook with excitement at the prospect, with fear at the potential power of the prize, with urgent desire within every fiber of her being that desired to see her people restored.

_ Focus. There is more to this._

Calming herself, she continued.

_To attain life_- The life of her people? She stared up at the statue. Perhaps….

She moved on to the rest.

_…all must be sacrificed_. The remnants of her people…possibly her very life. Why would she sacrifice what remains only to restore the Chozo, unless it was an exchange- her life for theirs. Such a prospect many might shy away from. But such was her desire that not even this could sway her.

_…all must be forsaken_. This she understood. To attain truth one must sacrifice the falsehoods that one has long clung to. It is a painful prospect, but a necessary one.

_…blood must be spilled…the blood must be pure. For the life is in the blood._

Samus focused her eyes on the open beak. To activate the statue and attain the prize, to restore all things, the statue would need to be brought to life. It would require the pure blood of a Chozo. That blood flowed within her.

Pulling the knife from its sheath, she unwound the rope and tied one end around the guard. The slight sound of rhythmic rushing wind filled Samus's right ear as she twirled the roped dagger, taking aim upon her target. At last she threw it in an upward arc. It looped around and landed inside the open beak. She gave the rope a tug, ensuring the knife's hold on the stone was solid. She looped the other end around her forearm and began to climb, bracing her feet against the statue as she ascended. In less then a minute, she had her feet on the massive thing's shoulder. Climbing up into the beak, she freed the dagger and re-wound the rope. Removing the left glove of her zero suit, she sliced the blade of the dagger across her palm, not even blinking at the sharp pain that shot through her hand, and let fall two drops of blood into the open throat of the metallic-stone statue.

Samus quickly replaced her glove, knowing the material of her zero suit would aid in the healing of the wound. After a few hours there would not even be a scar. She then placed the dagger in its sheath and climbed back out onto the shoulder as a rumble filled the chamber. She watched as the stone arms began to move towards each other. They met, the two halves of the sphere uniting in a flash of blinding light.

When Samus again opened her eyes, an object sat suspended in a purple energy field between the two claws. Samus climbed back up the beak as the energy field and the object it held began to float down towards the head. Rounding the beak, she stood upon the nose bridge of the avian head and reached up her hands to receive the object. It floated gracefully into her grasp, the energy field dissipating and Samus found herself staring at an object she knew well, but with an oddity about it that at first baffled the chozean infused bounty hunter.

_A suit of Chozean battle armor. But…it's still in its unactivated form…and without the crystals._

And then the realization hit her and the reality sent a tremor through her as her fear rose for Lara and Jo.

_Two crystals. Two other paths. Two other Chozirim._

Panic ran through her as she put her arms through the straps, so that the device clung to her back like a back pack. In quick fashion she began to clamber down the statue, jumping wherever she could in order to get down faster. She had to get to others before the statues became active. They would not accept their blood…and they had no way to defeat them.

Reaching the floor, Samus hurried around to the door, still feeling her body trembling with fear for Lara and Jo's safety. She skidded to a stop as she realized the door was still closed. It sat as it had before: gray and impassible, as some agent of cruelty that would not only prevent her from reaching her friends in time, but also…. Her panic rose as a rumbling entered her ears. She whipped around to see, to her horror, the statue coming to life.

_No._ She thought in panic as the statue began to turn to face her. _I possess the blood of the Chozo. This cannot be! My blood is pure!_

The chozirim opened wide it's stone beak and belted out an ear-piercing screech.

_My blood is pure!_

A stone claw shot down towards her. Samus leapt out of the way as the claw impacted the floor, throwing chunks of metallic stone and dust into the air. Samus rolled to her feet, her eyes dead set on the chozirim, her thoughts filled with fear. Her mind reeled with the impossibility of the situation as the chozirim recovered and turned in her direction. She carried the blood, the very genetic code of the Chozo within her. Her blood should have been sufficient to placate the wrath of the chozirim. But it wasn't. And now she stood before this guardian, with no way to defeat it, weaponless, condemned.

The chozirim let out another shriek as Samus backed away down the pathway between the pillars.

_Is this what the riddle meant? Am I to give up my life?_

The chozirim stalked after Samus, oddly keeping pace with her as a cat stalking its prey, repeating its horrible shriek.

_But that makes no sense! The Chozo were deep in wisdom! They knew I would be without weapons!_

The thought struck her with an odd sense of truth and she repeated it in her mind as the chozirim shrieked again.

_They _knew_ I would be without weapons._

Her face went from panic to focus as her mind began to search. It took only a moment until her thoughts came to rest on the number sequence. Her eyes began searching the body of the chozirim and she began to see her answer. All at once, Samus halted her steps. The guardian drew close, emitting its horrible shriek. Samus felt the vibration of the air around her at the sound. The chozirim took another step to at last close the distance between them. In a flurry of movement it shot a clawed hand down at her. But Samus, utilizing her skill at battling these and other threats, dodged ever so expertly, drawing her knife as she did so. Swinging her body back towards the arm, she brought down as hard as she could, the blade of the primitive weapon upon a particular spot upon the arm of the chozirim.

_One…_

The blade shattered against the metallic stone of the statue from the sheer force with which Samus applied the blow. The chozirim shrieked and attempted to recover only to find its arm frozen in place. Wasting no time, Samus leapt up onto the creature's paralyzed arm and ran up its length towards its shoulder. The other claw came in swiftly. Samus leapt up, dodging the blow and went into a mid-air summersault. As she felt herself reach the apex of her leap, she untucked herself, and went to a two-handed grip upon the broken weapon she still held. Her maneuver caused her to fall short of landing on the shoulder and she began to fall just on the inside of the arm. She reached out and brought the broken weapon down hard onto a particular spot on the shoulder as she fell past it.

_…two…_

The chozirim shrieked and Samus flipped and landed deftly on the ground as the creature's arm began to crumble to pieces. Samus immediately stood, ignoring the numbness in her arm, and struck a spot on the statue's leg.

_…one…_

The leg reacted by kicking up behind. Samus caught the leg with her free arm. It launched her high enough to reach up and strike the center of the guardian's back.

_…one…_

She fell back down and turned to see the left claw coming at her. Samus held up her broken weapon in defense. The large claw impacted the dagger, saving her from a fatal blow, but knocking her backwards through the air. Samus landed several feet away in a graceless roll on the hard floor. Her body ached with pain, but she knew she could not rest even for a moment. Forcing herself to her feet, she looked up to see the chozirim suddenly upon her. With a swiftness it had not before displayed, it scooped up Samus and squeezed her in a stone grip. Samus wasted no time, but began mercilessly pounding on the thumb talon of the statue. The chozirim opened its beak. Samus pounded, ignoring the pain rippling through her hands as she was drawn in. At last the thumb broke away and Samus began to slip from the grip of the claw. She slipped down, caught the remaining talons with her hand and swung back up. On the upswing, she reached out and struck the same spot on this arm as on the other…

_ …one…_

…again causing the arm to freeze in its motion. She then flipped up to land on the arm in one smooth, blurring motion. She ran up the arm and laid a passing strike at the chozirim's stone eye…

_…two…_

…and spun, slipping off the shoulder, striking yet another particular spot on her way down.

_…two…_

Landing, she reached out and struck the back of the knee of the statue's left leg.

_…two…_

She then moved across in swift motion, striking the knees in front in successive action.

_…three, four…_

Then leapt out of the way as the legs and remaining arm crumbled, bringing the torso and head crashing down to the floor. Samus stood and turned to look at the wreckage and what was left of the guardian still shrieking upon the metallic-stone floor. She watched it calmly as it used its beak to pull itself towards her in a pathetic, yet dogged attempt to still eliminate its prey. It craned its neck to look up at Samus and shrieked at her in defiance. Samus had no desire to further destroy this guardian. Yet she could not simply leave it. The door would not unseal without its destruction. And besides, something inside her was reluctant to leave this most sacred remnant of her people. But then, that's the way it always was when she encountered them, and yet, inevitably, the remnant was always destroyed. Was this her people's fate? To be slowly erased from existence by her own battles, by her own hand?

_By wisdom! Let that not be what the riddle meant by sacrifice_.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the chozirim once again uttering a sound from its beak. Yet, it was not the high-pitched shriek, but a low, dull vibration that seemed to shake everything around her. She noticed the symbols on the pillars were glowing a bright turquoise. And noticed with increased disconcert, that the rubble around her, the pieces of the chozirim that had fallen from it, were moving! They slid, slowly at first, but with increasing speed, across the floor and upon contacting the torso or other pieces of rubble, quickly merged with them and became whole rock once more as though they had never been made separate.

Samus quickly realized she had no choice. She had to end it…now. In swift actions, she struck the remaining eye, then the back of the neck, then four places on its back. And as the creature regained an arm and leg and rose off the ground, Samus for the hundredth time said goodbye to yet another remnant of her people and struck hard the archaic weapon into the thing's chest.

Instantly, the chozirim exploded in a brilliant flash of light and a hail of metallic-stone. Samus again went flying, the impact of the explosion so deadening her nerves that it nearly knocked her unconscious and she felt as though she were floating through an ethereal plain. She did not feel it when she crashed through two sets of doors, landed hard on some metallic-stone steps, and tumbled down onto the hard surface of another chamber, landing in a heap. Her mind barely, but increasingly, registered the pain. Yet it did not cause her to scream out. Rather, her jarred brain translated her physical torture into that of mental and emotional as she contemplated the further destruction of her people and their memory. She lay their for some time, unwilling, or unable to move, silent tears falling from her eyes, until somewhere distant, she hear a familiar, but long-forgotten voice calling her name.

_Old Bird._

Her heart broke for her surrogate father. But she knew why he called.

_ I can't give up. I have to keep going. Wisdom give me strength._

Slowly, she moved her hands beneath her and pushed herself up off the floor.

Painfully, Lara got to her knees, coughing at the smoke that poured into the room. Looking up through the haze of smoke, she saw two men standing there, staring at her with wide eyes and stunned faces. Getting to her feet, Lara pulled her pistols, not bothering even to raise them and said, "Look, I'm in no mood for any more killing, so just leave your guns here and bugger-off and we'll all be the better for it."

The men looked at each other. Lara raised a gun and fired a round between them.

"Now!" she demanded.

The two men hastily stripped themselves of their guns and ran out of the room, Lara's gun trained on them the entire time. She let a few moments pass before finally lowering her weapon. Blowing some air at the hair strands that now hung in her face, the exhausted treasure hunter turned to face the object she had previously seen beyond the floodlights.

The statue was enormous. Claw-like feet as wide as Lara's torso rested on the floor in front of her. Its long legs were bent into a sitting position. A beaked head sat ten feet up in broken light, concealed in part by the shadows of the spindly arms which ended in clawed hands holding out, seemingly in offering, an orb the size of Lara's head. The entire thing seemed carved out of the very stone of the chamber and rose so high, the top of the head disappeared into the shadow that lay between it and the high, unseen ceiling of the chamber. Lara noted the statue's position and let slip the word she knew it to represent.

"Truth." She muttered.

She looked again to the orb as she replaced her guns. The orb's surface was not solid, but dotted with holes which glowed with an orange light that faded in and out. Lara reached out, putting her hand near it. She felt the heat of the object upon her palm. It was definitely the energy source Joanna's collective enemies were hoping to harness. But they talked about freeing it. She would have to do the same if she was to protect it from them. No doubt those goons would be back with re-enforcements.

Lara stared at the object a moment, considering its form and appearance. Her mind went back to Samus' last instruction to Joanna and herself. The orb glowed with an orange light. If it was anything like the doors, that meant it needed an explosion of massive force to free it.

Pulling another grenade from her pack, she looked at it. It's coloring was different from the one she had used on the Skedar. The word "n-bomb" was etched on the side. In her time, an "n" on the side of an explosive device usually meant "nuclear". But such an explosive device would be unsafe in the form of a hand grenade. She surmised then, that it must be some type of explosive equal in force but with a more contained effect. At any rate, she was never one to be careful and this was her only option. With a fearless grin on her face, as though she dared something to go cross, she popped the lever and gingerly placed the grenade on top of the orb.

The moment she had released her grip, she turned and ran out of the room and down the hall as fast as her legs would carry her. No sooner had she reached the cross-roads when she heard a deep rumbling. The explosion seemed to be distorting sound itself and Lara began to feel the entire complex shake with increasing intensity. She turned to see the light from the chamber vanish as a dark orb emerged from the doorway. As the shaking seemed to level out, Lara stumbled as quickly as she could a little further down the passage to where she had incapacitated the last goon. She stayed there as she felt the rumbling begin to die down. The distortion died with it and soon she was standing in complete silence and darkness. She stayed there a few minutes more just to make sure and then pulled out her flashlight and a handy little device that she had rarely needed: a Geiger counter.

She approached the hallway, sweeping the sensor of the Geiger counter this way and that. The device was making no noise, which in itself was incredible. There seemed to be no radiation whatsoever in these corridors. She made her way slowly, just in case. At last she reached the chamber with the statue. The Geiger counter registered nothing inside. Lara looked to the orb. It was still intact.

_Blast._

Taking off her pack, she put the Geiger counter and flashlight away and checked her remaining inventory. Then she smiled.

Five minutes later she had ten grenades duct-taped all around the orb and a string looped around each lever. Giving some slack, she backed away and then gave the string a good yank. A series of rapid-fire metal clinking was heard as the levers popped off in rapid succession. Lara released her grip on the string and bolted out the door. She got only half-way down the hall before a barrage of explosions filled her ears and the light from the room was darkened as smoke poured into the hallway.

Coughing, Lara made her way through the smoke, back to the chamber. As she entered the room, she shined her light and waved her hand, attempting to clear away the smoke so she could see. At last, it cleared just enough and she reacted to what lay before her with a dejected, "Oh, you have got to be joking."

The orb lay still intact and still attached to the clawed hands of the Chozo statue. Lara's arms and attitude went cross. She stared at the object, tapping a finger as she tried to think of some way to detach it from its housing. As she stared at it, her mind instinctively went to other possibilities and scenarios, formulating ideas that went outside of her original thoughts on the matter. Eventually, a thought struck her mind with significance.

_ Perhaps._ She thought. _The orb isn't the power source. Perhaps the whole statue is the power source. If that's the case…_

She turned on her flashlight and began searching around the base of the statue. It wasn't long before she found some plates with markings identical to those they found in the entryway. Being careful to press them in the proper order, she quickly backed away. Four loud clunks sounded in the chamber, as the unlocking of some great metallic-stone clamps. The empty eye sockets of the statue began to glow a dull orange. The intensity grew until they were nearly as bright as the sun and Lara had to look away for their brightness. Her flashlight suddenly flickered and went out and the room became dark save for the pulsing glow of the orb.

Lara looked to the object and saw through its light the talons that embraced it began to release their grip with the sound of grinding stone echoing around her. Hesitantly, Lara reached out for the orb.

The moment she touched it, she was blinded by a bright flash of orange light. When she again opened her eyes the orb was gone, replaced by a crystalline object refracting the light from some inner source. Its shape was roughly cylindrical, its surface jagged as though it were made of several uncut amethyst stones fused together. Lara reached out and picked up the object. Her eyes beheld its beauty and magnificence. It was as a manufactured thing, yet done with such expert craftsmanship that it was indistinguishable from a natural object. Lara felt almost as if she was being drawn into its shifting light as she stared at it. Perhaps the only thing that kept her from such a fate was the growing rumbling in her ears.

Lara looked up to see the eye sockets of the statue now glowing a sickly red. The rumbling she recognized with panic and terror as the sound of metallic stone grinding against metallic stone. Her flashlight flickered back on, revealing the statue itself to be moving. Lara put the gemstone in her back-pack, still staring at the statue which was now rising to a standing position. It seemed larger than it had been when it was sitting. It towered over her, its head vanishing into the darkness above her, save for the two red points of light. It seemed to Lara the eyes of a demon awaking from its dark sleep and staring out from hell. Lara backed away towards the door as the eyes shifted to look in her direction. She did not need to see the head to recognize the enormous beak, many times the size of the Skedar's, open in an ear-piercing shriek.

Lara immediately turned and bolted out the door and down the corridor. The wall on which the doorway stood exploded after her as the chozirim burst through and gave chase. Lara's feet kicked a heavy object in the dark, nearly causing her to trip. With hopeful realization, her mind recalled assault rifle she had dropped. Immediately she reached down and frantically began groping for it. The statue was not slow. The glowing eyes were almost upon her. Her right hand suddenly felt the uneven surface of a mechanical device. Picking the rifle up, she righted it, turned, and fired. The flash from the weapon lit up the corridor, casting the shrieking guardian in a terrifying light. The bullets sparked and bounced off, doing nothing to the chozirim's metallic-stone form.

_Blast!_

Lara stopped firing, turned, and continued to run down the corridor as she turned on the flashlight that lay attached to the top of the weapon. The chozirim pursued her, its terrible shriek filling her ears.

Lara followed the corridor as it turned first this way, and then that. She had not explored this branch and so had no idea where she was going. She hoped she wasn't running into a dead end. Turning a corner, she ran past another of the goons she had been fighting off since she entered this place.

"Hey, stop!" he called after her as she simultaneously shouted back, "I'd run if I were you!"

She heard the screeching behind her and no other sound from the man. She didn't want to imagine his fate; a fate that would likely be hers if she didn't find a way to escape or destroy the thing that pursued her.

Turning another corner, she saw a doorway up ahead with light somewhere beyond it. She pushed her legs as hard as she could, forsaking all caution as she made a mad dash for it. The creature had fallen back, probably slowed by the goon, but was till hot on her heels. If she could get to some semblance of safety…

As she ran through the doorway, her eyes beheld an enormous chamber filled with ambient lighting, dimly lighting the entire area. Her eyes were immediately drawn, however, to the ground at her feet, which ended in a sheer drop ten feet in front of her. Lara immediately leaned back and locked her legs. The ground was covered in a light layer of some sandy material. Her legs slipped out from under her. She dropped her gun upon hitting the floor and her momentum carried her to the cliff where the sandy surface slid her right over the edge. Her hand reached out, frantically grasping for a handhold. Her hand found one, slipped, but then found another and held firm, halting her fall. She hung there, dangling hundreds of feet above the ground.

She knew the statue was not far behind her and so wasted no time, but reached up with her other hand and grabbed hold of the cliff. Forcing her tired and sore limbs, she pulled herself up to waste height. She saw the chozirim rampaging towards her. She saw her gun lying on the ground a quarter of the distance away. Again pushing her body to its limits, she pulled herself up, stumbled forward, and dove at her gun just as the chozirim burst through the wall. The sandy surface carried her beneath the creature's steps and back through the now ruined doorway. Lara flipped onto her back, and hit the secondary function switch on the weapon, willing it to be something useful. She pulled the trigger and heard the gun give a solid "click".

Her eyes went wide in panic as she looked down at the gun. A small display showed red numbers counting down from three. Lara immediately got to her feet and threw the gun as hard as she could at the chozirim's upper body. The chozirim, aware of Lara's presence and location and having recovered from its own momentum, turned just in time to see the assault rifle flying towards it. The creature opened its beak in another ear-piercing shriek. The sound was halted mid-way as the gun exploded in a massive fireball. The force of the explosion launched the chozirim into the air and over the edge of the cliff as Lara was thrown further back into the hall. Through her jarred mind, she heard the shriek repeat somewhere off in the distance. Her first thoughts were to keep moving until she heard the shriek cut short by what sounded like a massive stone avalanche. She looked up at the settling dust cloud as her mind recovered from its jarred state. The cloud settled, revealing a ruined, but ultimately empty opening.

Exhausted, Lara lay there a moment, her body aching and her breath heavy in her chest. After several minutes of hearing no more sound, she painfully pushed herself to her feet. She took a step and cringed at an intense pain in her leg. Feeling no wound with her hand, she surmised that she must have pulled a muscle and, limping, she made her way to the cliff and looked over the edge. Far below, she could see the remains of the statue impaled on a pillar of metallic stone and crumbled to rubble upon the floor, the broken beak frozen in a silent shriek, the once glowing eye sockets now dark and empty.

Lara then looked over the massive chamber. Innumerable stone pillars etched with hieroglyphs and symbols lined the floor far beneath her to the edge of her vision. She now saw that the symbols themselves were glowing with a gray hue, providing the ambient lighting she had noticed before. A pattern arose in her mind as she looked at them and she could see they encircled a central object. Lara squinted, but the best she could make out was that it was some sort of cubicle, stone structure. She guessed this was the central chamber and as valuable as the object she had acquired might be, the real treasure was likely to be found within or beneath the central object of the chamber. It was probably what the Skedar and those soldiers had been truly after. However, as she surveyed the room, she saw no signs of any living thing. The dust she could observe from her vantage point told her it had been that way for quite some time. Something wasn't right. She already had her suspicions and was reviewing them as well as looking for a way down when an enormously loud rumble ripped through the silence. The ground beneath her suddenly jolted, throwing her off her feet and sending her sliding off the edge. She managed to get a grip on the other side of the ledge before she slid completely off and once again found herself dangling like a cat on a wire. It took her a good minute this time, mostly due to her already tired body, but she managed to pull herself back onto the platform and stand up. As she looked around to see if she could determine what the jolt was, her eyes fell upon a familiar sight. Seeing it, she smiled.

A minute after Bernie had recovered, Joanna and her companions were back on the other side of the chasm, the four meta-ostriches scurrying ahead of Joanna who was, quite frankly, tired of running. She walked evenly towards the now open doorway and stepped through, the other side opening as she approached. She stopped in the midst of the opening and stared up at the enormous meta-ostrich, twice the size of the others, that now stood before her.

"Oh." She said. "You must be Mum."

The creature let out a loud, deep-bellied squawk which made Joanna wince.

Clarabelle and Trent scurried over next to Jo and began squawking at the larger meta-ostrich. After a moment of the parent twitching its head back and forth between the two, they ceased their squawking and the parent gave out another deep-bellied squawk, Joanna assumed, in approval.

"Yes, well, pleased to meet your acquaintance." Jo said, receiving a muted squawk in reply.

Jo then moved past the five of them and observed their surroundings. The chamber was high-ceilinged- forty feet or more, by Jo's estimation- but otherwise not overly large. In the center, standing to nearly the height of the ceiling, was a statue of a humanoid figure with avian features. One look and Joanna immediately recalled the pictures she had seen in Samus' chambers. The statue stood facing a wall adjacent to the doorway, one arm cradling a large orb to its side like a football, the other arm outstretched, its bird-like hand pointing a claw at the wall it faced. The orb it held was pulsing with a dull light. Momentarily lifting her lenses, Jo saw that the light was blue.

_Alright, Jo, let's think now. What would Lara do?_

Jo looked over the statue and then looked to the wall to which it was pointing. Switching to her x-ray lenses, she saw through the thick metallic-stone of the wall, noting a descending passageway on the other side. She switched back to her night-vision lenses and looked around for a symbol, but found nothing.

_Alright. Guess there's only one option._

Aiming her laser at the orb, Jo fired a burst, prompting a squawk from "mum" who promptly rushed out of the room, the rest following behind, the door oddly shutting after them. Joanna noted this and fired a burst at the door to discern its color. Her body went tense and her heart started began to race as the truth hit her eyes.

_Gray._

Jo immediately pulled her pistol and looked around holding her weapon in front of her. She saw nothing but the empty chamber. She looked to the statue. It seemed just as it had been: lifeless, metallic rock. Her heart still beating fast, Jo looked to the curled claw of the statue and noted the orb was gone, the pulsing light replaced by a jaded shimmering. Pensively, Jo approached and looked into the clawed hand. The light was not so intense that she had to deactivate her lenses. She could in fact still see the object within: A singular cut gem. It was square in shape and flat like a skipping stone found on the beach, its edges beveled. It shone with an eerie, but captivating, shimmering light, constantly shifting in color.

Jo felt as if she were being drawn in to the light of the strange object. For a moment, her mind forgot her potential danger, and she reached out a hand to take the small gem which was no bigger than her palm. Her gloved finger touched its smooth surface and she could not help but slip her fingers underneath it and close her hand upon it.

The moment she did so the hand of the statue did the same, clasping its hand solidly over Joanna's. The startled, but always ready agent immediately reacted by pulling from her belt a timed mine, tossing it upon the false wall and holstering her gun. She then set her laser to its secondary function as another light appeared in her peripheral. She glanced up to see the eyes of the statue now glowing brightly. Returning to the task at hand, she fired her laser. The beam easily cut through the metallic stone. Though her hand was clamped down, her wrist was free and she pivoted it, moving the laser on a deliberate path to free her hand.

She heard the sound of grinding metallic-stone and looked up to see the statue pull its other arm in and turn its head to look at Joanna. Jo returned to the task as an ear-piercing shriek filled the chamber. She pivoted her wrist at a painful angle.

_Almost there!_

But the creature interrupted her progress by lifting her off the ground and drawing her towards a massive, open beak. Just as she was about to be crunched in two, a beeping sounded through her earpiece. Jo covered her head with her other arm. A split second later a massive explosion ripped through the chamber sending Jo and the chozirim flying backwards.

Jo went flying in an uncontrolled flip before slamming against the wall and falling to the floor. Her body wracked with pain, she forced herself to her knees and then her feet. The force of the explosion was enough to complete the work she had started with her laser, and the stony fingers crumbled away as she stood. Doubting that was all it took to knock out the statue, a doubt confirmed by a repeat of that horrible shriek, Jo stumbled forward through the smoke and dust towards the now open passageway. She clumsily stumbled through the smoke, almost taking a dive on a flight of stair as she did so, hearing behind her the loud sounds of the chozirim's recovery.

As Jo made her way down the stairs, her mind and body began to recover, if only slightly. She remembered the jewel she had taken. Realizing it to still be miraculously gripped in her hand, she slipped it into a compartment in her belt. She knew the statue would be on her heels. She needed to come up with a plan…fast!

The Guardian stalked down the stairs, its feet making horrible crunching sounds on the stone, its beak repeating again and again that horrible, ear-piercing shriek. Its mind was dark, filled with a simple command to destroy the intruder and thief. It could sense the presence of its prey, a sense that steadily grew as it made its way down the dark stairwell. It would soon be upon her.

Joanna stood, nervously watching the frightening thing make its way towards her. Her back was to a sheer, stone wall. She swallowed, feeling the vibration in the floor as it drew closer and closer. Its horrible screech pained her ears and filled her with fright. She would have run at the sound and proximity of it, but there was nowhere to go.

_ Proximity, _she reminded herself. _That's right, Jo. Just remember that._

Her right hand adjusted its grip on the small object it held as another unnerving shriek ripped through her ears. The thing was less than a hundred feet away. Jo held her breath and pulled all her resources to remain focused and not panic, preparing herself for what was screaming towards her.

Another crash of a foot on the great metallic-stone stairs ripped through her body.

_ Patience. One more._

Another crash and an indicator went off in the corner of her lens. Her eyes darted to it and then back to the chozirim. The creature lifted its foot to take another step. A ball of fire suddenly exploded beneath its foot, launching it into the air and sending it crashing onto the staircase, another horrible shriek exiting its beak. Jo watched with tense muscles as it crashed uncontrolled down the stairwell, straight for her position. Deftly, she jumped to her right as it slammed into the wall right where she had been standing, the sound and vibration rippling through her body and ears disorienting her and causing her to loose her footing. She fell backwards, catching herself on the stair above her. Her head was swimming. She sat there only a moment, trying to recover. Before she could, however, an enormous, clawed hand reached out for her. Its great talons wrapped around her waist causing the yellow glow of her shields to manifest. The sound of the shields being damaged filled her ears, slightly sobering her mind. She realized what was happening as the creature rose to its feet, lifting Jo high off the ground. The chozirim shrieked at her, tearing at her inner ears and bringing her mind fully back to the situation at hand. Jo looked at the shield energy indicator on her visor and saw its rapid decline. The beak opened wide as the clawed hand drew her in. Jo's mind suddenly recalled the object she held in her hand. She closed her eyes tight and turned her head away from the beak.

_Oh, bugger all!_ She thought as her thumb moved up the slender pen-like object to the button on the end. _This is going to hurt!_

Her thumb pressed down hard. Dozens of remote mines on the walls and ceiling, and those that had planted themselves on the chozirim as it had tumbled down the stairs, all received the firing signal and simultaneously ignited in a massive explosion that tore the stairwell apart. Large chunks of metallic stone flew everywhere or exploded instantly into dust. The explosions surrounding her on nearly all sides, Jo felt the force of them impact her like a locomotive, slamming her sideways through a portion of metallic-stone wall. She felt herself hit the ground and roll, her shields sparking and draining out as she at last came to a painful stop.

She lay there for some time, unable to move, unable to think, feeling only pain throughout her body, wishing only that it would stop and that she could rest. But wracked as her mind and body were, she found that she simply could not pass out. So she lay there in agony, unable even to muster the strength to give voice to her discomfort. All was dead silent around her. She felt as if she were in a pain-filled limbo, never to escape. Trapped in torturous, immovable silence forever.

Yet, strangely, as she lay there, she found the pain beginning to subside. Her mind was recovering. She could see and hear clearly. Her breaths were no longer labored. She tried moving her arm. It took some effort and was rather clumsy, but another try resulted in much better results. Slowly, she moved her hands to push herself up to a sitting position and took in a breath. She moved her legs underneath her and pushed herself to her feet feeling only slight stiffness. She stretched, cracking her joints and suddenly felt perfectly fine, if a little tired. She turned, looking back to where she had come from, half-expecting there to be no evidence of what had just occurred.

A hundred feet away, at the base of an immense stone wall, lay a massive hole obviously caused by an explosion. Debris littered the area in a pattern that confirmed her experience. Jo approached the site and saw pieces that resembled the statue that had nearly taken her life; a piece of arm here, a leg there, and even the corner of the beaked head, its remaining eye socket now dark and void of life.

Joanna shuddered in memory of the terrifying experience. She could not believe she had actually survived. Perhaps it was by the narrowest of margins, but that always seemed to be the way things went for her. At any rate, she was alive and glad to be rid of her intended assassin. She just hoped there weren't any more of them. The thought struck her mind just as she heard a sound off to her left break through the utter silence of her surroundings. Jo immediately pulled her gun and looked around.


	18. Struck

XVIII. Struck

Jo stood pensive, her bloodshot eyes looking around in search of the source of the sound she had just heard. It wasn't much, really- just a rustling, a shuffling, barely discernable, yet coming to her in crystal clarity. She switched to the lenses of her I.R. Scanner, her eyes scanning back and forth between the pillars as she moved stealthily among them. Something was there. She knew it. Coming to a halt, she stood still and quieted her breathing. She closed her eyes, straining her ears for the slightest sound. All was quiet.

A tremendously loud sound ripped through her left ear, like the feedback of a microphone upon a speaker. Jo shouted and ripped her communicator from her ear. She then looked around, thinking she had heard a voice mixed in with the interference. Then she heard it again. It was distant, but she could clearly discern one word being shouted at her.

"JO!"

Joanna looked in the direction she had heard the voice, again seeing nothing.

"Up here!"

Jo raised her eyes to a distant precipice high up off the ground and saw the diminutive form of what appeared to be a human waving their arms in an attempt to flag down the young agent. Jo quickly replaced her earpiece and directed her lenses to zoom in on the figure. The person came into focus and Jo let out an enormous sigh of relief, her mouth widening into a smile.

"Lara." She stated almost in a chuckle. "Boy, am I glad to see you."

"Oh." Came Lara's voice in her earpiece. "I'd forgotten about the communicators. Sorry about that. I probably blew your eardrum out, didn't I?"

"No worries. I didn't need that ear anyway. I'm just glad to see a familiar face."

"Can you see a way for me to get down?"

"Hold on. Looks like there's a stone ladder directly underneath where you're standing."

Jo then holstered her gun and began jogging toward Lara's location while Lara worked her way over the side and made her way down the stone ladder. The two reached the bottom of the ladder at almost the same moment, Lara stepping off the ladder with an obvious limp.

Upon seeing her close up, Jo gained a concerned look and said, "Bugger! You like you've been through Hell!"

"Can't say that's far from the truth." Lara replied with her typical light-hearted smile as she attempted to smooth back some loose and frayed hairs. "Even had to face down a couple of demons."

Lara nodded in a particular direction and Jo looked to see the remains of another chozirim.

"A couple?" Jo said in consternation, noting the remains. "You mean you had to face more than one of those blasted things?"

"Well, no." Lara replied, beginning to re-do her braid. "The first was actually a Skedar."

Jo's eyes went wide.

"What?" she said. "A Skedar? Here?"

"What's worse, I had to face down a virtual army of your old friends."

Joanna thought for a moment before her eyes again went wide in revelation.

"Datadyne? You can't be serious! That's-"

"Impossible?" Lara finished her sentence. "That word seems to have lost its impact as of late. But if I may say so, looks like you've had a pretty rough go at it as well."

"Well, I did have to face down one of those statues. Exhausted upwards of thirty mines to take the blasted thing out."

"Huh. Doesn't surprise me." Lara replied as she finished retying her braid. "Those things are tougher than nails."

"Actually, my time was rather boring up until today. Lots of walking."

"Today?" Lara said, her brow becoming furrowed.

"Yes." Jo said in a slightly patronizing voice. "As in: they day after yesterday. I am able to keep time, you know."

"Wait. According to your clock, how long has it been since we parted?"

"Five days at least. Why?"

Lara nodded slowly in understanding.

"Right. Have you seen Samus?"

Joanna was about to answer when the distant sound of shattering glass filled her ears. The two turned and upon hearing nothing else, promptly headed back the way Jo had come. Passing Jo's rubble to the far side of the chamber, they found Samus lying on the ground near a shattered doorway. She pushed herself up off the floor with one hand as they approached. Before they could reach her, however, she cried out in pain and gripped her opposite arm.

"Samus." Lara called to her as they reached out to help her. "What's wr-"

They stopped as Samus held out her hand, keeping them at a distance. Even with her face staring at the ground, the two could still discern a look of fierce concentration. She was pulling all her resources to resist reacting to the pain of a separated shoulder joint. Slowly, she stood, again holding her arm, and shuffled over to a nearby pillar. Samus stood there a moment, taking in deep, shuddering breaths. Suddenly, she rammed her limp shoulder hard into the stone pillar. A sickening crunch briefly preceded a pain-filled scream that Samus could do nothing to hold back. Her scream melted into more shuddering breaths as she quickly regained her composure.

Tentatively, she began to exercise her shoulder, now firmly back in its socket, until she had reached full mobility, albeit with a large amount of soreness. But that would heal with time. There was still a task ahead of her. She needed to focus and push forward. She steeled her mind to that end as she looked at the two women. They both stood staring at Samus in disbelief. Samus noticed the unkemptness of the two, dirt smearing their clothes as well as their skin in various places. In fact, it seemed that only Lara's hair was more or less unruffled, which was very odd in itself. Apparently they had had a rougher time than she. Her eyes darted back and forth between the two as she considered this.

"You alright?" Joanna asked after several moments of silence.

"Fine." Samus replied evenly. "You two look terrible."

"Well that tends to happen when you have to face down a couple of fifty-foot statues." Lara replied.

Samus froze in her action.

"You encountered a Chozirim?" she asked in disbelief.

"Oh, you mean those walking death traps have a name? You could have mentioned we might run into them." Joanna said accusingly.

"That's impossible." Samus spoke as though she had not picked up on Jo's thinly veiled accusation. She spoke as if she could, through force of will, cause Joanna's words to be false. "You wouldn't even be alive, much less standing there talking to us if you had-"

"Actually, we both encountered our own, separately." Lara interrupted. "I told you we could handle ourselves. Obviously, you still don't believe us."

Samus wanted to reiterate how impossible the prospect was that anyone should survive an attack by a Chozirim. She wanted to tell them of the sacredness of their construction, of their unrestrainable wrath. But it was all useless. Here the two women stood before her, triumphant, alive, and far more capable in their own right than she would have imagined them to be. Still, she simply could not accept the prospect on pure faith. And so, after a long moment, her lips parted and she stated quite plainly, "Show me."

Jo and Lara glanced at each other, a look of impatience passing between them. Lara lead the way, limping. Samus followed and Jo took up the rear. They reached the remains of Joanna's chozirim and Lara stood back as Samus, still in total disbelief, slowly approached the wreckage. Her eyes darted to the enormous hole in the wall and then swept the remains of the statue. They came to rest on a large chunk of the head and she moved to it. Kneeling reverently before it, she lifted it gingerly from its grave and ran her hand over its surface. Another remnant of her people: gone. Familiar feelings of loss and grief rose up within her. It seemed she could not escape them. Ever stronger were they within the walls of a Chozo ruin.

Yet in the back of her mind, she was aware of Lara and Joanna's presence and willed herself away from showing emotion. She could not let them see her in any sort of weakness. She could not give them that advantage, should they turn out to be enemies. But, as she sat there, forcing the grief down, hiding it deep within her soul, a strange sensation took hold of her, as if her heart was hardening against such loss of her past. No! She could not let that happen! She could not!

Suddenly, the emotion rushed back with a power and force she could not contain and she found herself almost compulsively sliding her arms around the head fragment and pulling it to her chest. She laid her head upon its hard surface in the same compulsory manner as unbidden tears began to flow with quiet sobs.

Lara watched the whole scene with intrigue, Samus' connection with this alien race now plainly apparent. She looked over at Jo who stood with her arms crossed. She looked annoyed. Lara was going to signal to her not to say anything, but then she saw the look in her eyes. Strangely, they carried a look of sympathy as they watched the scene before them. Lara had to remind herself that she didn't know Joanna any better than she knew Samus. The young agent clearly had a past that identified, at least somewhat, with Samus' pain. And out of nowhere, it struck Lara how hard-hearted she had become. She was not without her own pain. Her conscience stung at the accusation and her mood grew darker as she fought to keep in balance the facts of the situation they were in with the emotions now running high in all three of them. She shook her head, both at herself and the situation in which she now found herself; traveling with these two women, each with a past that seemed to haunt them at every turn. Lara wondered at Joanna, her paranoid, closed-off mindset, and what secret pain she was holding tightly inside her.

Joanna watched with watery eyes, her own emotions at her own loss finding surface. Though she still managed a tight leash on them, she yet found a tear trickling down her cheek. She hastily wiped it away. Her suspicion of Samus wrestled with sympathy for her pain. She disliked this situation and wished it to end as quickly as possible. Yet she could not bring herself to suggest that they should keep moving. After all, there were no enemies present and they were in no particular hurry. And, on some, deeply hidden level, Joanna felt that perhaps she needed something like this; some…_friends_ like this.

After some long moments, Samus at last placed the fragment back on the ground, stood up and began to wipe the tears from her face, attempting to regain her composure.

"How…" the first word came out weakly. She cleared her throat and tried again, "How did you manage to defeat it?"

Her voice was stronger that time; near normal. Joanna also cleared her throat, reburying her emotions.

"Explosives." She replied. "Upwards of thirty remote mines."

"Did it have anything in its claws?" Samus asked, her voice unchanged as she stared at the gaping hole. "An orb or a strange item?"

Jo glanced at Lara and replied, "Yes, a small gem. Some kind of crystal, about the size of a skipping stone."

"I found one too." Lara put in, "Except mine was cylindrical in shape."

"Give them to me." Samus stated, not at all demanding.

"Why?" Joanna said, her suspicion having returned "What are they?"

Samus turned around to face them, a look of controlled anger upon her face. She looked at them, seeing them in a new light of strength, having defeated the chozirim. She respected that, but she also knew that strength could be turned against her. She had to be careful not to let her emotions cloud her thinking. Calmly, but still with a hint of impatience, she replied, "They're the activation crystals for a suit of chozean battle armor, the casing of which I am carrying on my back. I need them to activate the suit."

Lara prepared herself and spoke as gently as she could.

"I don't think that's a good idea just yet, Samus." She said.

Samus looked at her, her anger obviously building.

"What?" she said.

"Just hear me out." Lara came back, her hands moving in a gesture indicating for Samus to keep calm. "There were three pathways to take and three different Chozirim to face. Each one had a component of your battle armor. Have those components ever been presented separately before?"

Samus thought about it a moment, her mind struggling with her impatient anger and the need to think things through calmly.

"No." she reluctantly replied.

"Right." Lara continued. "It seems to me that it was purposely set up this way. You said yourself how impossible it is to take down one of these guardians. Jo and I managed to do it, but I'll admit it was only by the slimmest of margins. An ordinary human grunt, or even an alien like the skedar would have little chance against them. It was obviously set up this way in order both to protect and to access the real treasure of this place. Each of these items is likely a key to-"

"Down!" Came Jo's voice as a hail of gunfire filled the chamber.


	19. Firefight

XIX. Firefight

The shout came from Joanna and as Lara's tendons began to react, her arms moving towards her guns and her body beginning to turn, a hail of gunfire began raining down all around her. Her guns in hand, Lara simultaneously whirled around and began sidestepping towards the nearest pillar, her guns letting loose a mad volley in the direction in which she had glimpsed Jo firing.

She barely made it to the pillar and ducked behind it as the metallic stone of the structure sparked with the ricochets of more bullets. Her leg screamed in pain at the sudden push. Her arm was also stinging with pain and she looked down to find several bleeding grazes on her outer bicep. These guys must be expert marksmen to have gotten that close.

"Blast!" Came Joanna's voice through Lara's communicator as more gunfire sounded. "I only got one of them. The other must have had some shielding."

"No, I managed to get that one." Lara replied, remembering that she had glimpsed only two men through the chaos. "And those two were carrying pistols. That's automatic gunfire coming from somewhere else."

Jo chanced a peak from her shelter and nearly got her head blown off as the edge of her pillar sparked. She pulled her head back. Fortunately she had gotten a good idea of what was out there. _Un_fortunately, she didn't like what she saw.

"You hit?" came Lara's voice.

"I'm fine." Jo replied. "I spot five men with A.R. Thirty-four Assault Rifles coming in at Eleven O'clock. Looks like Datadyne, alright. But where did they come from? I could have sworn this chamber was empty."

"I have a theory on that." Lara stated. "But now's not the time. You know anything about those rifles?"

"They've got about thirty rounds in a clip. But if I know these troops, they won't risk more than a few shots at a time and then only if they have a good beat on you."

"Well, prepare yourself." Lara said. There was a pause in her voice as more gunfire rang out. From the sound of it, it was Lara firing back. "We've got ten more hunkering down at Twelve O'clock." Lara continued. "Looks like they figured out we're not just your average intruders. Samus, can you see any more from your station?"

Samus did not respond.

"Samus?" Lara called through the mic. "Jo, can you see Samus? Has she been hit?"

A thought occurred to Joanna.

"I don't think she can hear us, Lara." Jo suggested, firing a few blind rounds in their adversaries' general direction. "You notice she needed the crystals to activate her suit? Something must have happened to it when we got separated. My guess is her comm link was tied into her helmet."

"Can you see if she's alright?"

Jo watched the pillars near the rubble, hoping for some sign from Samus.

"I can't see her." Jo replied.

"See if you can get closer. I'll draw their fire."

"Roger."

Lara squatted and popped out from behind her pillar, letting loose a volley of bullets as Jo made way to the cover of a pillar further back. She continued to look around but still saw no sign of Samus. She was about to report back, when she saw some movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head, gun raised, her mouth dropped open in shock. There, not twenty yards away was Samus impossibly locked in hand-to-hand combat with a Skedar. More amazing was the fact that she seemed to be driving the beast back!

"Jo, do you see her?" Lara's voice snapped her out of her stunned state as more gunfire sounded

"Uh…yes. But we've got trouble. She's going at it with a Skedar."

Jo heard a chuckle come through her earpiece. She wasn't quite sure what Lara found so funny, but had no time to think about it. Instead, she carefully raised her gun for a head shot on the Skedar. The two were moving in and out amongst the pillars. Jo studied the scene. She watched how they moved, watched as they ducked behind a pillar. She watched as the back end of the Skedar popped out the other side. She waited patiently for the moment to hit. A few more inches and…

The movement happened and Jo pressed down on the trigger. The gun kicked and a single bullet zipped through the air, narrowly missing several pillars, seemingly headed for nowhere but the far wall of the chamber. But just as it reached the spot where Samus and the Skedar were battling it out, the Skedar's head jerked back into the bullet's path and the steel projectile imbedded itself perfectly in the eye of the monstrous alien.

The Skedar reeled and roared in pain. Samus seized the opportunity and leaped up onto the thing's shoulders. In one quick, fluid motion, she reached down, grabbed the thing's head and twisted, snapping its neck with sickening _crack_! The monster collapsed on the ground. Samus wasted no time, but immediately headed for Jo's direction as the pillars behind her sparked with more gunfire. Jo tossed her gun in Samus' direction. Samus dove for the spot to where the gun was falling. In another fluid motion, she caught the weapon, sprung off her hands onto her feet, righted the gun and turned to face behind her, firing off several rounds. Jo took the opportunity and fled back towards another pillar where she could make visual contact with Lara.

She made it and saw Lara spot her.

"You alright?" she heard Lara ask as the woman peeked around the edge of her pillar and fired a few more rounds. Somewhere a man screamed.

"Fine." Jo replied. "Samus is right behind me. But she's low on ammo and I'm weaponless. Can you slide me a gun?"

"'Fraid my ammo's getting low too." Lara replied. "These guys are pretty well entrenched. We might be able to hold them off, but not for long. There's probably more Skedar about as well. Forgot to tell you that bit."

"Well we can't just sit here until we're picked off." Jo objected. "I'll have to go on the offensive while you two draw their fire."

"You're mad!" Lara said, again firing off a few rounds. "There's got to be thirty men out there plus the Skedar."

"Relax." Jo replied with a smile. "I'm used to this sort of thing, remember? Anyway, it's our only chance to come out of this alive. Not toss me a g-"

She stopped as she looked over at Lara. Her pack had been torn open, probably by catching some gunfire, and had spilled its contents onto the floor. Amongst them was a rectangular, silvery object that looked stunningly familiar to Jo's eyes.

"Lara." Jo called. "At your feet. Is that a DCX Twenty?"

"A what?" Lara called back.

"The laptop." Jo restated. "Did you pull it off a DataDyne agent?"

"Yes. What about it?"

"Kick it and a gun over to me."

"Are you mad? We don't have time for-"

"Just do it!"

Lara responded by pulling out a spare pistol and then simultaneously kicking the laptop over to Jo while tossing the spare pistol onto its surface. They both reached the edge of Jo's pillar. The young agent barely managed to snatch them up without getting shot.

"Cover me!" she shouted.

Lara and Samus who had arrived at a pillar just behind Jo, popped out and began firing as Jo made her way forward through the maze of pillars. She at first headed towards their assailants, but changed direction in order to confuse anyone eyeing her movements. A soldier popped out from behind a pillar twenty feet away and took aim. Without halting, or even slowing her pace, Joanna raised her pistol and fired off a round. The man went down without firing a shot. Jo kept moving, undaunted. She changed direction again and another soldier popped out, this one on her right about five feet from her. He hit the ground even faster than the first. She thought nothing of her action as she mentally checked another round off the count she was keeping. She again changed direction. Zig-zagging through the pillars, Jo kept watch for the structure she knew she had seen earlier as man after man appeared out of the gloom, attempting to take her down. Each fell with little more than a grunt and a thud, none being quite fast enough to out-race Joanna's deadly aim and none having any more impact on her conscience than a swatted fly. Finding a good spot near the structure, she sat down, her back to a pillar and opened the laptop. As it began to power up, Jo raised her gun and fired to her left without even looking. Another grunt and another thud…and another check off her ammo count- nothing more- as she began to work the keys.

###############

Lara stood behind her pillar, mentally taking stock of how many rounds she had left. Whatever Jo was planning she had better get going. It had only been a couple of minutes since she had taken off, but that was a couple of minutes too long.

_No._ she thought. _If she was going to do something, she'd have done it by now._

She again took stock. Three rounds left. She still had her shotgun, but if she had counted right, Samus was almost out as well. The chamber was silent.

_They're probably trying to conserve their ammo._

Between the three of them, they had managed to take out enough of the soldiers to cause them to be cautious. But they were still advancing, albeit slowly.

A rock landed at her feet and Lara looked over to see Samus pointing at her gun. Lara replied by holding up four fingers. Samus pointed at Lara, then at hole beyond the rubble of Jo's explosion, then to herself, then to their attackers. Lara smiled and shook her head. She would have signaled back the reverse, but after all she'd seen, she knew better than to ask that of Samus Aran.

_Jo's dead. _She thought. _Just a handful of shots and two stubborn personalities between the two of us. Looks like we're both going out guns blazing._

Samus nodded at Lara's headshake, her face solid and strong. She pointed to her gun, then touched her finger between her eyes, then pointed towards their attackers. Lara saluted, getting her meaning, and saying goodbye. Samus held up three fingers and began to count down.

Three…two…one…

Lara and Samus rolled out from behind their pillars, gun's aimed in deadly marksmanship. A silver object flashed in their vision and they both looked up to see a laptop sailing high in the air on a trajectory that would cause it to impact a pillar that ran floor-to-ceiling. A whirring filled the chamber as the silvery object transformed, one surface splitting and recombining to form a tripod. The other, changing into what Lara saw to be the multi-barreled form of a gatling gun.

"Down!" Lara shouted and ducked back behind a pillar as a hail of gunfire again filled the chamber, followed quickly, and in sequence, by a series of men's screams and Skedars' feral roars. The terrible sounds seemed to last forever. Lara stood with her eyes shut, trying not to imagine the massacre that was happening as so many living beings were being cut down like grass at the mercy of a lawnmower. At last the firing stopped and, oddly, so did the cries. Lara opened her eyes and found she had been holding her breath.

"Jo, tell me that was you." She said, breathlessly.

"You didn't think I'd leave the party that early did you?" came Joanna's voice. "Stay put. The drone gun may have just run out of bullets. I'm going to have a look around."

"Roger."

Lara looked to Samus who was staring back at her, waiting for some news. Lara signaled her to stay put. Samus did so, but continued to watch their surroundings.

"All clear." Cam Jo's voice at last.

"You sure?" Lara asked.

"That's a hard one to answer." Jo replied. "Come take a look."

Lara peaked her head out, not at all ready to believe they were safe. She could see Jo standing a distance off where the group of DataDyne agents had been entrenched, just beyond the central object Lara had seen from the precipice. She seemed relaxed and was standing out in the open. Jo noticed her and waved her over. Lara glanced at Samus and then moved out from behind her cover. As she and Samus proceeded towards Joanna, Lara noted that the bodies of the two agents they had shot at the beginning of the firefight were gone. And there was no blood, no footprints, nothing to indicate they had ever even been there.

As they got closer, they could see the anxious look on Jo's face. The two of them made their way around the central object: a square, metallic-stone slab rising five feet from the floor and at least fourteen feet on a side. There were some reliefs in the top of the slab, but Lara paid them no heed for the time being. Her mind was far too focused on the fact that, except for the three women, the area was completely empty, the dust on the floor thick and undisturbed.

"The drone gun is gone too." Jo said, nodding towards where she had tossed the weapon. "What was that theory of yours?"

Lara let a long breath slide out through her nose. "Right." She said, holstering her guns and turning to Samus. "By your reckoning, how long has it been since we parted ways?"

To say Samus was confused would have been an understatement. She answered the question, nevertheless.

"Seven hours, why?"

Jo's eyes went wide. "Seven hours?" she echoed in surprise. "It's been five days for me." She then turned to Lara. "So that's why you were asking. How long has it been for you?"

Lara stood with her arms crossed, her mind having already reached the conclusion of their circumstances and what she expected to find in the center structure. She knew they would like it even less than she did.

"Forty minutes." She replied flatly.

The others stood in stunned silence.

"Right." Lara repeated. "This whole place, probably this whole planet, has different dispersions of time throughout. It even seems to have extended out into space. Samus' riddle spoke of the Chozo beginning to understand time and space. I overheard a Skedar tell one of your DataDyne friends that there were no disturbances in the central chamber. We seem to be not only encountering these different dispersions, but shifting through time itself. What really disturbs me, however, is not that it's happening, but that it's happening to all three of us and we're being…_kept_ together.

"At any rate, if my guess is right, we'll find the cause of our coming together, this place, and this whole blooming mess-" she turned her head and nodded at the slab "-in there."

The three women stared a moment at the structure, then, one-by-one began to move towards it. The minds of all three were filled with anticipation at the prospect of at last coming to an answer as to why things had come to be as they had…and what it had to do with them.

As they approached, they observed the reliefs set into the stone. The shapes corresponded to the three items they had collected from the chozirim. In the center was a circular object, vaguely metallic, wrought of some material different from that of the slab. Lara went to retrieve her jewel, which had fallen out of her pack, while Samus handed Jo's gun back to her, took off her device and placed it in its socket. Lara came back presently and placed hers in. She then looked up at Jo who was standing there, staring at the slab.

"Jo?" she asked.

Jo opened her mouth to say something, but stopped, shaking her head. She instead blew out a breath, pulled the jewel from her belt and said, "I don't know why you're both so eager to get blown up again." as she placed it in its socket.

Immediately, the glowing runes on the pillars around them went dark and the slab lit up with a brilliant, white light. It shone like a beacon in the darkness, extending to the ceiling far above them. Its light was then pierced by a beam of blue emanating from the circular object in the center. The beam widened and changed its form. It began to take on the shape of a formless blob. Then the blob refined itself into a humanoid shape, which at last gave way to the holographic form of a Chozo in ragged robes, its avian features wrinkled and gaunt. No sooner had it appeared than its beak opened and it began to speak in a voice cracked with age.

"Greetings, Daughter Samus."

Samus could only stare up in awe, her mouth forming a name so familiar to her, it came without effort, without thought.

"Old Bird."


	20. Truth

XX. Truth

"We are dying, Samus."

Samus stared up at the image of Old Bird that stood before her. He seemed even older than when she had last seen him. Her mind instinctively went back to her younger days, when she would sit at his feet and listen to his wisdom. His words had held her captive then. And as he spoke, she realized that they still did.

"Truly, we, the Chozo, are dead already." Old Bird continued. "This you have known from your youth. For even in your days amongst us, our numbers dwindled. Those wise among us have sought long for a way to undo this evil. And as we began to understand time and space, we began to find a solution, or so we thought. A device was conceived, and eventually created, the pinnacle of Chozo technological achievement. It is a device designed for the manipulation of time itself. Its design was rudimentary and though the wise among us conceived and designed it. Even we were unsure of its potential and proper use. It was hidden away here until we, or one worthy, might understand better its use and purpose and thus use it to restore our people. You know well Samus the potential danger if Ridley, or the Betrayer, or some other force might gain control of it. We placed two guardians, signifying that it is the Way to Life for our people and a third signifying our highest value: Truth.

"But it was, from its inception, a fool's errand. There is a deeper truth that you must know, Daughter Samus. It is one we, the Chozo have always known, but long denied. Only as I stand here, on the threshold of death itself, can I deny it no longer. Death reigns not only in the Chozo, but in all races. All peoples, all living beings, indeed, even the universe itself is in a state of decay. In our attempt to escape death, the Chozo created the time device. But, even in its great power, it is impotent to reverse that which cannot be stopped.

"We are finite beings, Samus; all of us. The finite, by its very nature, cannot achieve the infinite. Any effort will have only a finite, _limited_, effect. The flow of time cannot be altered. Though we move freely within it, its flow is fixed, even within ourselves. Thus in order to escape that one thing that makes us finite, we must be rescued out of it by one who is not bound by it; one who is infinite. Only one who is infinite can conquer the finiteness of death. Only the eternal can make efforts that exceed the temporal.

"I do not know if such a one as this exists. But if he does, he is very likely the creator of time itself and thus holds sway even over death. You _must_ seek him out, Samus. You must find this one, for your own sake, and for the sake of your people. This is the final charge and the last lesson that I bring you."

Much to everyone's surprise, the hologram then reached out a spindly claw towards Samus. Eerily, it stopped next to her cheek and made a motion as if stroking it. Samus closed her eyes. It was as though she could feel her surrogate father's aged hand upon her cheek.

"My Daughter." Old Bird continued. "I have long known your heart. Emotion runs deep within you. And that is as it should be. I know how you must long for us. But we are gone and you must move on."

Samus' heart melted within her and silent tears freely fell as she looked back at him, her hands cradling the holographic claw as if to reclaim that sense of touch she had not felt in years.

"The time device," Old Bird continued again, "if properly used, may be able to restore you to your people, but only temporarily. Eventually, death will again claim us all. It is far more likely, that the device will cause a greater evil and rip the fabric of the universe asunder, especially if our enemies discover it. The finite cannot achieve the infinite. You must destroy the device. I am too old and have not the ability. I cannot even guarantee I will be able to return to the surface to take the device some place where it may be destroyed. Therefore I have left it sealed where there is a chance for it to be safe from any hands but yours. I have left this recording that you may know the path of wisdom and choose it. Beneath this recording device you may place your hand and the device will be yours. Heed my teachings as you always have. Farewell, Daughter Samus. Desire truth."

With that, the hologram flickered and faded out. The three women stood there as Samus attempted in vain to get her emotions in check. Eventually, she was able to somewhat calm herself and she wiped her face clean of her tears. She then reached out and turned the holographic projector clockwise until it clicked and then came free of the slab, revealing beneath it the indent of a human hand. Samus placed her hand in the indent. A slight grinding sound was heard ad a hidden panel slid open. The light from the slab suddenly ceased. In the same instant, the glowing of the pillars returned. The three looked at where the hidden panel had slid away, their eyes adjusting to the suddenly dim light. After a moment, a relief of a cylindrical object could be seen where the panel once lay. Sitting cradled within the relief was…

_ Nothing._


	21. Revelations

XX. Revelations

"Alright." Joanna said. "You've heard our reports. Now lets hear yours."

Lara hadn't seemed surprised that the device was gone, and even said as much. When she was prodded about it, she suggested they get back to the surface, and possibly to the ship, if it was there when they emerged, and that the two should tell her everything they encountered on their separate paths. The two had complied, neither wanting to stay there a moment longer than was necessary, and left as soon as Samus had gathered up the components of her suit and Lara had retrieved the contents of her pack. They took the route Lara had traveled down as it seemed the only one that was even possible to take, all the while reporting to Lara what they had discovered, with Lara not speaking except to ask a clarifying question here or there. They half-expected to run into trouble on the way back, but none came, though the signs of Lara's battles were still there and were now covered by a layer of dust. They emerged to find the ship waiting, Creto reporting their absences to have lasted no more than eighty minutes from its last contact from Samus. Now they all stood on the bridge, Samus and Jo looking expectantly at Lara who was standing uneasily before them. Her arms were crossed and she was staring off into nowhere in thought, her eyes flicking to them, alerting them that she was still aware of their presence and giving an edge to her demeanor which, combined with everything else, told the two women that Lara thought they wouldn't like what she was about to tell them.

"I expected the time device to have already been stolen and activated," Lara began. "because of the time dispersions that seem to be floating about. Such inconsistencies and time-shifting indicated a disaster that could only have been caused by such a device. As we all seemed to be shifting through different time periods, I had hoped we would have a chance to grab the time device and destroy it before we shifted again, thus eliminating the time rifts.

"But it was all rot. Samus activated the panel, we time-shifted, and the intruders we left behind got their hands on the time device. We must have shifted to a time far afterwards. Hence the sudden change in lights and the thick dust on everything. What bothers me most about this situation, is not that we've been jumping to different and seemingly random periods of time, but that we've been doing it together."

The three women stood silent, each chewing on the thought. Samus stared at Lara. Well removed from the Chozo ruins, her emotions had again stabilized and her look had again hardened.

"No." she said at length. "That's not the totality of what's bothering you. There's something you're not telling us, something you don't _want_ to tell us, because it's unsettled _you_. Something that has to do with what we saw in there. What is it?"

Lara looked back at them and took a deep breath. They _really_ weren't going to like this.

"Since you told me the date you arrived on earth, I've had my suspicions." Lara said. "I saw a connection when I translated the tablet, but I filed it away in the back of my mind. But the more we encountered, and the more I thought about it, the more the connections made too much sense.

"The year you arrived was the same year that Jesus of Nazereth was crucified. He was also supposedly born some time in April, the very month on Earth that Jo and I met. The tablet speaks of an all-consuming and unquenchable fire. According to the Bible, the holy book of the Christian religion, an all-consuming unquenchable fire and the phrase 'He is the light' are both references to the God of that religion and synonymously with His Son, identified as Jesus of Nazereth, who is counted as one in the same God but in three distinct persons, the Holy Spirit being the third. Don't ask me to explain."

The last part she added in response to Joanna opening her mouth for a question. The agent promptly shut it again at Lara's words.

"The narrow way and the way everlasting are references to the way to follow Jesus, called Christ, and the subsequent reward for such devotion. The living waters is what He promises to give to those who follow Him, saying that it will spring up into eternal life. 'It is truth'…well, that meaning is obvious.

"The tablet was found on a Skedar planet, presumably placed there long after the Skedar had been eradicated. I rather doubt they put it there. Yet it was written in at least two alien languages, your Chozo being one of them. Perhaps Old Bird found it and added the last line just before his death, having reached some conclusion about its truthfulness. Then there was the riddle you encountered in the Chozirim chamber."

She hesitated, knowing how this was going to sound.

"In the Christian Bible, prophecy often had double fulfillment, double meanings, if you will. The riddle was: _To gain the prize, all must be sacrificed. To know the truth, all must be forsaken. To be restored, blood must be spilled. To attain life, the blood must be pure. For life is in the blood._

"Obviously, the clues led you to know how to activate the statue. But the part about your blood being pure didn't match up. But if you overlay the Bible with the riddle, it makes perfect sense."

"For one who believes in that sort of thing." Joanna cut in, clearly growing impatient.

Lara looked over at her briefly and then at Samus, expecting the same from her. But Samus was just standing there listening, her face unreadable.

"Right." Lara continued, after a moment. "Anyway, the basic belief of the Bible is that man sinned, or transgressed, God's law eating of a certain tree when they were told not to. Basic disobedience passed down through the male to every generation afterwards, thus all mankind is guilty of transgression before, and thereby alienated from, a perfectly good, omniscient, omnipresence, all-powerful God.

"The tenet is set forth early on in Genesis that a blood sacrifice is necessary to atone for the transgression. _To be restored, blood must be spilled._ But because man is guilty before God, his blood is not pure, thus only the blood of one pure can fully atone for sin. However, because the transgression was against an eternal, infinite being, the transgression is also eternal and infinite. Man _can_ pay for his sins, but because he is finite and sin-cursed, he will spend all eternity doing it in Hell. Thus in order to escape his inescapable fate, man needs a sacrifice that is human, free of sin, and also an eternal being. Since the Bible maintains there is only one true God, this leaves only one option: Jesus the Christ, the perfect, sinless Son of God and Man. Because He is man, He can properly represent man to God, just as Adam did. Because He is sinless, his blood is pure. Because is supposedly God in human flesh, He is eternal and thus is an adequate sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. And because He willingly gave up His eternal life by way of a blood sacrifice (_the life is in the blood_), He can purchase the finite lives of, and thus grant His eternal life to, all who accept it, believe…and repent."

"Well." Joanna said when Lara had finished. "It sounds all jolly well and good for a nice set of coincidences, but I'd like to get to the part where this has anything to do with us or the time device."

Lara gave her a sideways look.

"I don't believe in coincidences." She said in a deadly serious tone. "All the strange things I've encountered, all the religious artifacts and references I've ever uncovered were always hints at a bigger picture. This is not like those. It's exactly what the Bible teaches, often through direct quotes. Even Old Bird's words are too close to dismiss the similarities. There's no bigger picture. Rather, the concept that what the Bible teaches is true, IS the intended bigger picture. That's what bothers me. The whole thing reeks of absolute, unshakeable truth."

"What about the rest of the riddle?" Samus asked, speaking at last. Though, it was hardly the words anyone had expected to come out of her mouth. The Chozo's obsession with holding fast to truth flashed through Lara's mind, and she understood.

"_To gain the prize, all must be sacrificed. To know the truth, all must be forsaken._" Lara quoted again, "Two passages come to mind, although I am sure there are others. At one point, Jesus tells His disciples, 'He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.' Another passage says that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Basically, the idea is complete surrendering of one's whole life to the truth of the Bible and to Christ as Lord."

"So what about this bothers you?" Samus asked. "You seem to be a woman dedicated to truth…in your own way. Your ideologies seem to be, at the very least, similar to that of the Chozo. If it _is_ the truth, you must accept it. So why does it bother you."

Lara looked at the floor, her body language still betraying the fact that she was _very_ uncomfortable with the matter.

"Because," she said at last in a subdued tone, "if it _is_ true, then that means that we are all under the wrath of an all-power, all-knowing, all-seeing God who created everything and could just as easily destroy it and us in a moment. We murdered His Son with our sins, and unless we are willing to forsake all and follow Him, we are damned to Hell for eternity."

She looked up then, a desperation in her eyes the two women would not have thought could be in her, though there were no other visible signs.

"I don't want to face that." She said. "But I don't want to accept it either. And it's quite clear where I am going if I don't make a choice, because by doing so, I've already made it."

"Well my choice is not to believe it." Said Jo. "It's all rot if ask me and, if you could get your head out of your theology hole for a minute and think about the time-"

"Yes, Jo, I'm aware that we still need to address the matter of the stolen time device." Lara said, the desperation fading from her eyes. "And in answer to your earlier inquiry, I think our coming together, the time device, and all we've encountered was arranged just to bring us to this point of knowledge and choice. We've all felt like there was something bigger than ourselves directing us through this whole thing. You even said as much, saying there was an intelligence at work here."

"I didn't mean…" she broke off, wanting to deny the words but knowing they made perfect sense. "Oh, bugger-all and rot! Forget it! Can we just get back on task here?"

"Joanna's right." Samus cut in. "What you've discovered should not and _can_ not be ignored, Lara. But right now we need to figure out who took the time device and where it was taken to."

"Thanks you." Jo said, exasperated, though a little surprised at Samus siding with her.

"Right." Lara said, making a mental note to address the matter as soon as this whole mess was sorted out. She rubbed her face, attempting to focus. She was also pretty exhausted. Big surprise. "Alright. Let's take stock of who we're dealing with: Datadyne, the Skedar, and…the Galactic Federation? Who are they exactly?"

Samus was quick to answer.

"The Galactic Federation is an interplanetary, interspecies conglomeration that governs the universe, so far as it has been explored." She said in rote fashion. She then continued in a darker tone. "But they've been involved in some pretty dark and illegal activities. And not everyone agrees that they have the universe's best interests at heart. The military in particular is a hub of corruption, though it may go all the way to the top. I've personally witnessed some of their acts, including cloning metroids, those floating creatures I described to you earlier, as well as other dangerous species. I recently had a mission on one of their experimental genetic research space stations, called the Bottle Ship, where they were involved in precisely this kind of work. If the Skedar species had been eradicated in your time, they may have been resurrected by the Galactic Federation in just such a way as this."

"That still doesn't explain Datadyne's presence here." Joanna pointed out.

Lara shrugged.

"That's simple enough to explain." She said. "Any organization can be maintained or even resurrected by any individual or set of individuals. These could simply have been the Datadyne of Samus' era."

"Except that the weapons they were carrying were from my era." Jo said.

Lara twisted her lip. That was a good point.

"Alright. Here's one theory." Lara said after a moment of thought. "The Galactic Federation managed to get their hands on the device. Their experimentation with it led to the opening of the time rifts through which Datadyne came, bringing the Skedar with them…no, that doesn't work."

She rubbed her face again, stretching it downwards for an instant.

"Ugh! I can't even think anymore." She said.

"It doesn't really matter anyway." Joanna cut in, "The device is either with the Skedar on their holy planet, on earth with Datadyne, or…"

"Or at a Galactic Federation star base." Samus finished her sentence.

"Right." Joanna replied. "We're in your part of space, so I would say the Galactic Federation is our best bet. If that turns out to be nothing we can always explore the other two. What kind of access do you have to the GF's star bases?"

"Legal, or otherwise?" Samus asked.

Joanna gave a smirk.

"I like your thinking." She said.

"Samus, I'm receiving a signal." Creto interrupted. "It's weak and I cannot locate its source, but it's coding is tuned to my receptor frequencies."

"Patch it through." Samus ordered.

Audio static filled the chamber, shifting I intensity and pitch.

"I thought you said it was specifically tuned to you." Samus said as she slid into her chair and began to work the controls. "Why are we getting static?"

"There seems to be some unknown variation in the signal associated with its weak nature. I am attempting to compensate."

"Cycle through every filter. Try and find some combination to clear it up."

The static continued as Samus and Creto worked in tandem to clear up the static.

"…Sa…us…"

"There." Samus called out. "Back up to filters five and three."

The static suddenly died down to a low audio fuzz and a single, whispering voice emerged, cutting through the noise and piercing straight to Samus' heart.

"Samus…don't trust…"

Lara and Jo watched in amazement as Samus' eyes went wide at the sound of the voice. Her face gained an uncharacteristically shocked expression as the bounty hunter leapt to her feet and replied in an astonished tone, "Adam?"

The static increased and Samus frantically worked the controls.

"Creto!" she called out.

A moment later, the static again died down and the ghostly voice filled the chamber.

"Samus…don't trust him…making alliance…seeking metroids…long as I can…get here fast…were right…more to it…stop to it…objections…"

The static increased and Creto spoke before Samus had a chance to react.

"I'm sorry, Samus, but I've lost the signal."

Samus slammed her hand down onto the console

"Friend of yours, I take it?" Lara inquired.

Samus breathed out a breath, allowing her frustration to pass for the time being, understanding their circumstances.

"Commander Adam Malcovich." Samus replied in a steady tone. "He was my former commanding officer when I was a soldier in the Galactic Federation armed forces. He was also a close friend."

"Was?" Joanna asked.

"He died on the Bottle Ship mission." Samus replied matter-of-factly, "Which explains the static and the weak, shifting signal. It was probably coming from and through several time rifts. But it's not right."

"What's not right?" Jo asked.

Samus turned around to face them.

"I've never received any such transmission from him." She said. "If he sent it, it would have to have been from some time in the past, but how could it be if he never sent it?"

"Maybe that's just it." Jo suggested. "Maybe it got sent, but got lost in the time rifts and never got to you."

Samus shook her head.

"I saw him moments before he died." She said. "He never mentioned it. And it didn't sound like it was something that was unimportant."

Lara rubbed her face.

"Let's just figure it out later." She said. "I assume he had someplace where he was regularly stationed?"

Samus nodded.

"GF main headquarters, planet Daiban." She confirmed.

"Good." Lara replied. "That sounds like as good a place as any to start searching for the time device, or any information on it."

"Agreed." Samus replied. "I'll lay in a course-"

"Hold it." Joanna said, drawing both women's attentions. "Look, no one is in more of a hurry to get this thing done and over with than me, but we've all been through some pretty harsh stuff in the last…well, we've just had to fight off an army of soldiers and walking death statues. I'm for getting some rest before we head into another fray."

"Hmph." Lara replied, moving away. "I'll second that."

She walked over to her former resting spot and took up her former position, sliding her glasses over her eyes and allowing her head to drop.

"Agreed." Samus replied, and she too headed off to her small bedroom in the back of the ship. The words, though sound, sounded uncharacteristic of Joanna and Samus suspected there was something behind them. But she had learned how sharp the young woman was. She probably made that comment about the Chozirim just to prod at her. She wouldn't do anything to let her know of her suspicions. A simple command for Creto to keep tight surveillance on her once she was inside her bedroom would be well enough. Besides, Joanna had been telling the truth. They _did_ all need some rest. If her history with Galactic Federation was any indicator, they weren't anywhere near approaching safe waters.

Her door secure, Samus issued the order to Creto, and then lay down on her bed. Resting in the fact that her advanced ship would alert her of any danger, and that with her suit reactivated, she would have no trouble fending off most anything that came at her, she allowed her drowsy mind to drift slowly into her dreams.

Before Samus' door slid shut, Lara was already snoring. Joanna looked around the bridge.

"Guess I'll take the chair." She said to no one in particular.

She walked over and swiveled it around to face her. It wasn't a particularly welcomed prospect, but it was padded and looked comfortable enough. Plopping down, she swiveled around to face the control panel and windshield that acted as a viewscreen. Odd as it was, she didn't feel particularly tired, but nonetheless resigned herself to relaxing, and sleeping if she could. She allowed her hands to slide down the exterior of the chair until they reached the underside. They then flopped back up to her lap.

"Do you play chess, Creto?" she asked aloud.

There was no answer. Rolling her eyes and crossing her arms in response, Joanna mumbled out, "Figured as much."

She then crossed her legs, closed her eyes, and sat back, allowing herself to settle into an uneasy sleep.


End file.
